University  of 

Massachusetts 

Amherst 


I      B 


THE 

History  of  Pittsfield 

Massachusetts 

FROM  THE  YEAR  1876  TO  THE  YEAR  1916 


BY 

EDWARD  BOLTWOOD 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  CITY  OF  PITTSFIELD 


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s« 


T683 


PRESS  OF  THE 
EAGLE  PRINTIxNG  AND  BINDING  CO. 

PITTSFIELD,  MASS. 
1916 


FOREWORD 

NEARLY  forty  years  had  gone  by  since  Joseph  E.  A.  Smith 
had  brought  to  its  close  his  graphic  story  of  the  Town  of 
Pittsfield.  Meanwhile  the  town  had  given  place  to  the 
city.  The  men  and  women  who  gave  color  to  the  life  of  the 
town  had  passed  from  the  stage.  It  was  still  possible,  however, 
to  recall  the  tale  of  these  years,  the  faces,  the  speech,  the  deeds, 
of  those  who  had  played  their  parts  in  it;  but  no  time  was  to  be 
lost. 

In  1913  and  1914  a  group  of  men  met  at  intervals  to  plan  for 
putting  the  history  of  these  four  decades  into  permanent  form. 
This  loosely  organized  committee  delegated  its  work  to  a  smaller 
body  of  its  number.  The  members  of  successive  city  govern- 
ments lent  cordial  aid  and  support  to  the  plan  and  authorized 
grants  from  the  city  treasury  in  furtherance  of  it.  The  commit- 
tee found  in  Edward  Boltwood  a  man  fitted  for  the  task  of  his- 
torian by  family  tradition,  aptitude  and  inclination.  His  work 
in  the  following  pages  is  published  in  the  month  of  December 
1916  by  the  City  of  Pittsfield. 

For  the  Committee, 

Clement  F.  Coogan, 
George  H.  Tucker, 
William  L.  Adam. 


Afn/i 


CONTENTS 

Page 

I    PiTTSFIELD  IN  1876 1 

II   Fifteen  Years  of  Town  Life 16 

III  Town  Government,  1876-1891 32 

IV  A  Group  of  Townsmen 46 

V   The  Change  from  Town  to  City 64 

VI   Phases  of  thf  Citys  Growth 78 

VII   A  Miscellany  of  City  Life 93 

VIII   The  Conduct  of  Municipal  Affairs. 

1891-1916 108 

IX   Schools 130 

X   Churches— I 148 

XI   Churches— II 162 

XII   The  Berkshire  Athenaeum  and  Museum  .  175 

XIII  Young  Peoples  Associations 190 

XIV  The  House  of  Mercy 205 

XV   Charities  and  Benefactions 221 

XVI   Military  and  Patriotic  Organizations     .  233 

XVII   Industrial  and  Financial 245 

XVIII   Electrical  Manufacturing 265 

XIX   Law  and  Order 277 

XX   Fire  Department 290 

XXI   Newspapers 303 

XXII   Clubs,  Theaters  and  Hotels 318 

XXIII  Prominent  Citizens 331 

XXIV  The  150th  Anniversary  Celebration  in 

1911 351 

XXV    PITTSFIELD  IN  1915 365 

Index 381 


History  of  Pittsfield 


CHAPTER  I 
PITTSFIELD   IN   1876 

THE  subject  of  this  narrative  is  the  history  of  Pittsfield,  in 
Massachusetts,  from  the  year  1876  to  the  year  1916. 
Another  hand  has  written  of  the  town's  settlement  and 
earlier  growth;  and  the  two  treasured  volumes  by  Joseph  E.  A. 
Smith,  dealing  with  Pittsfield  from  1734  to  1876,  testify  no 
less  to  the  studious  labor  of  the  antiquarian,  and  to  the  clear 
insight  of  the  historical  critic,  than  to  the  love  of  a  poet  for  the 
romance  and  the  beauty  of  the  hills.  The  task  imposed  upon 
this  book  is  to  carry  forward  to  our  own  day  the  annals  of  the 
town  from  the  point  at  which  they  were  left  by  Mr.  Smith's 
diligent,  graceful,  and  affectionate  pen. 

The  story  to  be  told  is  one  of  peace.  It  can  recount  of  the 
community  no  strange  or  dramatic  vicissitude,  no  stormy  broil 
of  faction,  no  struggle  in  great  wars.  During  the  forty  years 
which  it  embraces,  Pittsfield  changed  much,  but  changed  placid- 
ly; and  the  New  England  town  became  a  New  England  city  in 
New  England  fashion,  with  the  outward  calmness  of  Yankee  self- 
restraint. 

In  the  centennial  year  of  the  Republic,  Pittsfield  was  a  town 
of  twelve  thousand  inhabitants,  occupying  the  same  rectangular 
area  of  about  forty  square  miles  of  pleasant  Berkshire  valley 
and  highland  that  is  enclosed  by  the  present  city  limits.  Over 
this  territory,  the  population  in  1876  was  more  evenly  distributed 
than  are  the  thirty-nine  thousand  people  of  Pittsfield  in  1915,  for 
outlying  farms  and  factory  villages,  especially  in  the  south- 
western part  of  the  township,  then  claimed  a  larger  proportion 
of  its  inhabitants.  The  central  village,  around  Park  Square, 
was  thus  described  in  1872  by  a  professional  writer,  sent  by  the 


2  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Springfield  Republican  to  report  the  dedication  of  the  Soldiers' 
Monument: 

"Pittsfield  is  no  longer  the  quiet,  dullish,  somewhat  dingy 
village  that  some  of  us  remember  it,  standing  with  Yankee  re- 
serve in  the  midst  of  fine  scenery,  where  it  seemed  a  little  out  of 
place.  It  has  become  of  late  years  a  bustling,  ambitious,  archi- 
tectural town,  almost  a  city  and  quite  ready  for  the  title,  with 
fine  public  buildings  that  do  not  shrink  behind  trees  for  fear  of 
being  seen,  lawns  and  parks,  and  gardens  and  fountains,  and  an 
abundance  of  'carriage  people',  and  stately  horses  parading  the 
streets  and  avenues.  Everywhere  'improvements'  are  going  up; 
there  are  public  works  of  various  kinds;  the  streets  and  squares 
look  less  like  a  New  England  village  than  the  fast-growing  cities 
of  the  West". 

It  shall  be  the  endeavor  of  our  first  chapter  to  place  the  reader 
in  the  position  of  such  a  visitor  to  Pittsfield  in  1876,  who  might 
have  alighted  at  the  triangular,  brick  railroad  station,  planted, 
with  somewhat  aggressive  utility,  nearly  in  the  middle  of  West 
Street. 

His  attention  first  would  have  been  engaged  by  the  Burbank 
Hotel,  which  occupied  part  of  the  site  of  the  present  station. 
Opened  in  1871,  it  was  a  white,  wooden  structure  of  four  floors, 
surmounted  by  a  mansard  roof,  and  graced  by  double-decked 
piazzas.  A  wing  on  the  east  was  devoted  to  a  public  hall,  w^ith  a 
stage  and  scenery;  and  in  the  basement  was  a  row  of  shops, 
which  extended  nearly  to  Center  Street.  As  far  as  Clapp  Avenue, 
the  north  side  of  West  Street,  with  its  low,  unsightly,  wooden 
buildings,  was  called  "The  Bowery"  by  the  local  humorists  of 
1876.  The  south  side,  east  of  the  swamp  and  open  meadow 
traversed  by  Center  Street,  was  bordered  mostly  by  dwelling 
houses. 

On  the  corner  of  North  and  West  Streets,  the  four  stories  of 
the  Berkshire  Life  Insurance  Company's  building,  with  its 
mansard  roof,  overtopped  every  structure  in  town,  except  the 
Academy  of  Music.  This  was  the  town's  most  important  edifice 
forty  years  ago,  because  it  harbored,  in  addition  to  the  life  in- 
surance offices,  a  singularly  large  share  of  local  activities — all 
the  banks,  the  post  and  telegraph  ofiices,  the  Masonic  organiza- 
tions, and  the  offices  of  the  town  government.  A  few  years 
later  this  building  contained  also  the  telephone  exchange,  the 


PITTSFIELD  IN  1876  3 

express  offices,  and  the  offices  of  the  gas  company  and  of  the 
water  commissioners;  and  its  sudden  destruction  would  have 
paralyzed  Pittsfield  almost  completely. 

Where  the  Hotel  Wendell  now  stands,  on  the  corner  of  South 
and  West  Streets,  there  was  in  1876  a  brick  structure  with  an 
angular  roof,  sloping  north  and  south,  which  had  been  known 
as  the  United  States  Hotel  and  as  the  European  House.  The 
functions  of  a  hotel  therein  had  been  abandoned,  and  the  three 
stories  were  devoted  to  miscellaneous  tenants.  Immediately  to 
the  south,  on  what  was  then  still  called  Exchange  Row,  a  res- 
taurant and  a  few  stores  faced  Park  Square. 

The  building  on  the  corner  of  Bank  Row  and  South  Street 
had  then  a  sloping  roof,  and  bore  on  its  west  side  an  inscription 
concerning  which  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  declared  that 
"when  I  drive  up  West  Street,  and  see  the  Backus  sign,  I  feel 
for  the  first  time  that  Pittsfield  is  still  Pittsfield".  The  court 
house  had  been  completed  in  1871,  and  the  Athenaeum  was 
dedicated  in  1876.  Shaded  by  the  trees  on  the  north  side  of 
Park  Square,  on  land  now  occupied  by  the  head  of  Allen  Street, 
was  St.  Stephen's  Episcopal  Church,  of  gray  stone,  with  a  tower 
eighty  feet  high.  The  lower  floor  of  the  closely  adjacent  town 
hall  was  rented  for  lawyers'  offices.  A  lane  east  of  the  church 
connected  Park  Square  with  the  premises  of  a  grammar  school 
building  facing  south,  the  two  engine  houses,  and  the  wooden 
lockup.  West  of  the  First  Congregational  Church,  on  the 
North  Street  corner,  was  West's  block,  a  brick  building  of  three 
stories. 

West's  block  had  been,  since  its  erection  in  1850,  a  center 
of  the  town's  public  and  social  life.  The  "general  store"  on  the 
corner  had  been  practically  the  executive  office  of  the  town  gov- 
ernment, owing  to  the  conspicuous  service  of  one  of  its  pro- 
prietors, John  C.  West,  as  selectman;  while  the  hall  on  the  third 
floor  had  served  the  village  for  public  meetings  and  dinners, 
balls  and  concerts,  lectures  and  theatrical  entertainments,  and 
as  the  armory  of  the  local  militia  company.  In  1876,  wooden 
parapets  surrounding  the  flat  roof  of  West's  block  proclaimed, 
in  gaudily  painted  letters,  that  beneath  them  were  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Colby  Guard. 


4  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Business  on  North  Street  had  extended  barely  beyond  the 
railroad  bridge,  and  between  Fenn  Street  and  the  bridge  dwelling 
houses  still  remained,  although  some  were  partly  converted  to 
commercial  purposes.*  No  business  blocks  had  been  built  on 
the  side  streets  running  east  and  west  from  North  Street,  except 
on  Depot  and  Fenn  Streets.  The  latter  was  ornamented  by  a 
little  park,  upon  which  faced  the  Methodist  Church.  Opposite 
the  Baptist  Church,  on  North  Street,  a  wooden  building  of  two 
low  stories  disfigured  the  otherwise  well-equipped  center  of  trade. 
This  building  had  been  contrived  by  joining  two  double  tene- 
ments, and  its  aggregate  rental  every  three  years  was  said  to 
repay  its  entire  purchase  price.  Upon  the  whole,  however,  the 
appearance  of  Pittsfield's  main  thoroughfare  in  1876,  with  more 
than  a  dozen  business  blocks  of  brick  and  stone,  was  indicative  of 
thrift  and  public  spirit. 

On  the  east  side  of  North  Street,  south  of  the  railroad,  the 
Academy  of  Music  was  a  theater  far  above  the  average  then  of 
playhouses  in  New  England,  outside  of  Boston.  Beyond  the 
theater,  where  now  is  Eagle  Square,  was  a  dwelling  house,  which 
was  used  as  a  restaurant.  There  was  no  public  way  from  Cot- 
tage Row  to  North  Street.  Whelden's  block,  on  the  north  side 
of  the  bridge,  had  been  built  in  1875;  and  the  proprietor  was 
satirically  accused  of  aiming  at  the  trade  of  Lanesborough. 

*In  1876,  some  of  the  more  prominent  places  of  business  on  the  west  side 
of  North  Street,  beginning  at  its  southern  extremity,  were  those  of  L.  L.  At- 
wood  (drugs),  E.  Spiegel  (dry  goods),  Laforest  Logan  (tobacco),  L.  A.  Stevens 
(groceries),  William  H.  Cooley  (groceries),  Gerst  and  Smith  (harness),  Peir- 
son  and  Son  (hardware).  Rice  and  Mills  (furniture),  C.  C.  Childs  (jewelry), 
W.  H.  Sloan  (hats  and  furs),  John  Feeley  (plumbing  and  stoves),  Burbank  and 
Enright  (shoes).  Manning  and  Son  (drugs),  Thomas  Behan  (harness),  Davis 
and  Taylor  (men's  clothing),  A.  S.  Waite  (drugs),  Casey  and  Bacon  (groceries), 
and  James  M.  Burns  (furniture). 

A  corresponding  list  of  retail  establishments  on  the  east  side  of  North 
Street  would  include  John  C.  West  and  Brother  (general  store),  Brewster  and 
Rice  (drugs).  Prince  and  Walker  (carpets),  S.  E.  Nichols  (books),  Kennedy 
and  Maclnnes  (dry  goods),  Moses  England  (dry  goods),  O.  Root  and  Sons 
(shoes),  Morey  and  Harrison  (groceries),  Pingree  and  Brother  (dry  goods), 
Martin  and  Ritchie  (dry  goods),  J.  R.  Newman  and  Son  (men's  clothing), 
H.  T.  Morgan  and  Company  (men's  clothing),  A.  D.  Gale  (harness),  and  S.  T. 
Whipple  (furniture). 


PITTSFIELD  IN  1876  5 

The  American  House  stood,  as  its  successor  stands  now,  on 
the  corner  of  North  Street  and  Columbus  Avenue,  then  called 
Railroad  Street.  The  hotel  was  in  those  days  a  structure  of 
wood,  with  three  piazzas  and  a  broad,  uncovered  platform  on  the 
level  of  the  sidewalk.  Here  our  visitor  might  smoke  his  cigar 
al  fresco,  admire  the  gyrations  of  the  rubber  ball  in  the  hotel 
fountain,  and  watch  the  idlers  sitting  on  the  railings  of  the 
North  Street  bridge,  which  was  then  unprovided  with  a  fence  of 
boards.  If  he  turned  his  eyes  across  the  street,  he  saw  a  lumber- 
yard and  a  manufactory  of  melodeons.  He  was  nearly  at  the 
limit  of  the  region  of  stores.  There  were  no  business  blocks 
north  of  Summer  Street. 

Our  visitor  of  1876  would  have  found  that  the  more  preten- 
tious residences,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  lay  south  and  east 
of  the  Park,  and  within  a  short  radius  of  it.  The  wave  of  indus- 
trial prosperity  in  New  England,  which  followed  the  Civil  War, 
had  made  several  Pittsfield  men  rich,  but  they  had  built,  during 
this  period,  very  few  new  houses  for  their  own  occupancy.  It 
seems  rather  to  have  been  the  custom  to  remodel,  to  add  a  wing 
or  a  story,  a  cupola  or  a  mansard  roof.  The  result  was  often 
not  architecturally  happy,  but  nevertheless  the  town  in  1876 
contained  an  unusual  number  of  handsome  residences,  which, 
set  off  by  sweeping  lawns  and  regal  trees,  seldom  failed  to  impress 
the  observer  with  a  sense  of  quiet  and  dignified  luxury. 

Excepting  a  part  of  South  Street,  fences  were  still  the  univer- 
sal fashion;  and  it  was  a  fashion  not  so  common  to  adorn  one's 
front  yard  with  a  fountain,  or  with  a  more  or  less  decorative  piece 
of  metal  statuary.  The  flower  beds,  which  at  the  beginning  of 
the  century  were  customarily  maintained  between  house  and 
street,  had  unfortunately  retreated  to  the  vicinity  of  the  back 
yard;   but  floriculture  was  no  less  a  favorite  avocation;   and  in 

On  the  north  side  of  West  Street,  in  1876,  H.  P.  Lucas  dealt  in  farmers' 
supplies,  John  W.  Power  in  "mill  findings",  Robbins,  Gamwell  and  Company 
in  steam  heating  appliances,  Tuttle  and  Branch  in  stoves,  and  John  F.  Heming 
in  flour  and  grain. 

The  business  places  on  South  Street  and  Bank  Row,  facing  the  Park,  were 
Cloyes'  millinery  store,  Cogswell's  restaurant,  E.  G.  Judd's  hat  store,  Lowden's 
fish  market,  Fenn  and  Carter's  carpet  store,  the  plumbers'  shop  of  W.  G. 
Backus  and  Sons,  the  "notion  store"  of  J.  Haight  and  Co.,  the  Berkshire  Valley 
Paper  Company's  establishment,  and  I.  C.  Weller's  flour  and  grain  store. 


6  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

the  floral  months  allowed  by  the  Berkshire  climate,  the  many 
gardens  in  Pittsfield,  large  and  small,  were  a  glory  and  a  delight. 
Ornamental  shrubbery  was  more  in  vogue  than  it  is  now,  and 
many  dooryards  and  house-fences  were  nearly  hidden  by  it. 

Several  noticeable  dwellings  have  since  disappeared.  On 
East  Street,  between  St.  Stephen's  Church  and  First  Street,  was 
the  large  and  costly  mansion  of  blue  limestone  which  had  been 
completed  in  1858  by  Thomas  Allen.  Surrounded  later  by  a 
wall  of  dressed  stone,  with  heavy  bronze  gates,  this  was  for 
many  years  the  most  conspicuous  residence  in  the  central  village. 
Mr.  Allen,  whose  home  was  in  St.  Louis,  occupied  his  Pittsfield 
house  during  the  summers  until  he  died  in  1882;  and  after  the 
death  of  his  widow,  in  1897,  the  house  was  untenanted.  In  1913 
it  was  razed,  and  the  spacious  grounds,  part  of  the  "home-lot" 
of  Parson  Allen  of  the  Revolution,  were  divided  by  Federal 
Street,  and  an  extension  of  Wendell  Avenue. 

Robert  Pomeroy's  house,  long  and  affectionately  known  as 
"The  Homestead",  stood  on  the  south  side  of  East  Street,  op- 
posite the  head  of  First  Street.  In  1876,  the  land  now  occupied 
by  the  dwellings  on  both  sides  of  Bartlett  Avenue  was  Mr.  Pom- 
eroy's orchard  and  pasture.  He  lived  until  1884  in  "The 
Homestead"  which  was  demolished  in  1889,  and  was  replaced  by 
the  house  now  standing  on  the  same  site,  built  by  Mr.  Pomeroy's 
son-in-law,  Henry  W.  Bishop.  "The  Homestead"  had  been  a 
tavern  in  Revolutionary  days;  and  later,  as  the  home  of  Lemuel 
Pomeroy  and  of  his  son,  it  was  famous  for  a  baronial  hospitality, 
of  which  the  reputation  was  by  no  means  confined  to  Pittsfield, 
or  even  to  the  United  States. 

On  the  north  side  of  East  Street,  opposite  the  head  of  Apple- 
ton  Avenue,  a  quaint,  gambrel-roofed  cottage  stood  on  the  site 
of  the  residence  erected  by  W.  Russell  Allen.  Built  prior  to 
1790  by  Col.  Simon  Lamed,  whose  farm  extended  to  the  line 
of  the  railroad,  this  house,  with  its  orchard,  barns,  and  out- 
buildings, remained  unaltered  for  nearly  a  century,  a  picturesque 
memorial  of  the  early  days  of  the  town. 

Farther  afield,  beyond  the  Elm  Street  bridge,  the  family  of 
William  Pollock  maintained  on  a  lavish  scale  the  noble  estate 
called    "Greytower",   which   included   nearly  the  entire  square 


PITTSFIELD  IN  1876  7 

now  bounded  by  Elm  Street,  Holmes  Road,  Dawes  Avenue,  and 
High  Street.  The  gate-lodge  stood  where  is  now  the  Baptist 
chapel  on  Elm  Street;  and  about  two  hundred  yards  to  the 
south  of  it  was  the  stone  mansion,  surrounded  by  stately  elms, 
luxuriant  gardens,  and  English-looking  lawns.  The  house  was 
dismantled  in  1913,  and  the  estate  was  divided  into  building  lots. 

If  we  return  to  Park  Square  and  glance  at  South  Street,  we 
shall  find  that  the  changes  since  1876  are  mainly  on  the  east  side. 
The  present  site  of  the  Museum  was  then  occupied  by  two  dwell- 
ing houses.  The  one  nearer  the  Park  had  been  built  before  1800, 
perhaps  by  Stalham  Williams,  and  was  rented  by  a  variety  of 
tenants;  the  other,  a  modest  but  graceful  example  of  the  pilaster 
period  of  New  England  architecture,  had  been  the  home  of  Calvin 
Martin,  until  his  death  in  1867.  It  may  be  seen  today  on  Broad 
Street.  An  odd  little  wooden  building,  used  by  Mr.  Martin  as  a 
law-office,  stood  in  front  of  his  residence,  close  to  the  sidewalk. 

Next  to  the  Martin  place  on  the  south  was  a  brick  house  of 
three  stories,  which  had  been  erected  in  1826  by  the  trustees  of 
the  Pittsfield  Female  Academy.  Until  about  1870,  it  continued 
to  serve  the  purposes  of  a  girls'  school;  and  in  1876  it  had  com- 
menced its  long  and  popular  career  as  Mrs.  Viner's  boarding 
house.  It  was  demolished  in  1888,  when  the  Berkshire  Home  for 
Aged  Women  was  built  on  the  same  site. 

A  pleasant  cottage  occupied  the  plot  of  land  now  covered 
by  the  Colonial  Theater;  and  across  the  street  the  parsonage  of 
the  First  Church  stood  where  is  now  the  Masonic  Temple.  At 
the  south  corner  of  South  and  Broad  Streets,  an  old  and  capa- 
cious tavern  building,  removed  many  years  before  from  Park 
Square,  did  duty  as  a  place  of  entertainment  for  summer  visitors, 
under  the  auspices  of  Mrs.  Backus.  Facing  north,  opposite  the 
west  end  of  Colt  Road,  stood  the  former  medical  college,  a  brick 
structure  owned  by  the  town  and  used  as  a  schoolhouse,  which 
was  burned  to  the  ground  in  1876,  when  the  seventy  pupils  of 
the  high  school  became  for  a  time  academically  homeless.  Be- 
yond the  fringe  of  houses  on  the  south  side  of  Broad  Street  was 
open  pasture  land. 

Nearby,  occupying  the  entire  square  bounded  by  Broad  and 
Taconic  Streets,  and  Wendell  and  Pomeroy  Avenues,  was  "Elm- 


8  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

wood",  the  home  of  Edward  Learned,  then  the  finest  residential 
estate  in  Pittsfield,  with  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  "Grey- 
tower".  The  house  still  survives,  but  the  beautiful  grounds 
have  been  divided.  Mr.  Learned's  neighbor,  John  L.  Colby, 
lived  in  a  low,  Italian-looking  villa,  on  the  southeast  corner  of 
East  Housatonic  Street  and  Pomeroy  Avenue,  with  broad,  shaded 
lawns,  and  a  wired  enclosure  wherein  deer  were  kept  for  the 
admiration  of  the  juvenile  populace. 

In  1876,  the  river  bridge  at  Appleton  Avenue  had  not  been 
built,  and  East  Housatonic  Street  and  Appleton  Avenue  may 
be  said  to  have  marked  the  limit  on  the  southeast  of  the  residen- 
tial district  of  the  central  village.  On  the  northeast,  a  like 
limit  was  established  by  Burbank  and  Third  Streets,  for  imme- 
diately north  of  Tyler  Street  was  open  country,  and  in  that  vi- 
cinity there  were  only  a  few  dwelling  houses  east  of  the  county 
jail.  Rural  meadows  bordered  Silver  Lake  to  the  north  and 
northeast.  The  central  village  on  the  northwest  was  bounded 
in  1876  by  Kent  Avenue,  Alder  Street,  and  Onota  Street;  and 
on  the  southwest  by  the  west  branch  of  the  Housatonic  River 
and  Henry  Avenue. 

Within  this  area,  the  newer  dwellings  exhibited  the  hooded 
windows,  the  roofs  of  many  gables,  and  the  ornamental  wood- 
work of  a  fashion  of  architecture,  which,  as  was  remarked  by  a 
congratulatory  writer  in  the  Pittsfield  Sun,  was  beginning  to 
supersede  "the  square  and  box-like  style  of  the  houses  of  our 
forefathers". 

No  street  in  the  town  was  artificially  surfaced,  and  cross- 
walks were  not  provided,  except  on  North  and  West  Streets,  and 
on  Park  Square.  When  the  almanac  denied  a  moon,  the  streets 
were  lighted  by  gas  lamps,  of  which  there  were  about  one  hun- 
dred. In  the  business  district  the  sidewalks,  thickly  fringed  by 
hitching-posts,  were  of  irregular  stone  flagging,  diversified  by 
intervals  of  gravel.  Upon  the  residential  streets,  the  sidewalks 
were  of  gravel;  and  they  were  often  narrow  and  uneven,  and  in 
wet  weather  very  muddy. 

The  era  of  the  modern  "summer  place"  had  hardly  dawned 
in  Berkshire,  forty  years  ago.  Col.  Richard  Lathers  had  built  a 
summer  residence,  called  "Abby  Lodge",  on  the  crest   of   the 


PITTSFIELD  IN  1876  9 

hill  south  of  the  railroad  on  Holmes  Road;  and  west  of  the  vil- 
lage, on  the  southern  shore  of  Onota  Lake,  stood  the  picturesque 
summer  homes  of  Pickering  Clark  and  W.  C.  Allen.  All  of  these 
have  disappeared.  Still  standing,  near  the  present  intersection 
of  Perrine  Avenue  and  Roland  Street,  is  the  villa  built  by  Judge 
Benjamin  R.  Curtis,  which  in  1876  was  the  solitary  center  of  a 
broad  and  romantic  estate,  covered  partly  by  forest  trees.  The 
Davol  farm,  on  the  hill  northwest  of  Springside,  was  another 
conspicuous  outlying  country  place,  and  a  little  to  the  south  of  it 
the  Springside  boarding  house  could  safely  guarantee  rural  se- 
clusion to  its  guests.  The  shores  of  Pontoosuc  Lake  had  been 
adorned  neither  by  cottage  nor  by  bungalow,  although  Jerry 
Swan,  and  two  or  three  fellow  mariners,  kept  boathouses  there. 

In  the  northern  and  northwestern  parts  of  the  town,  the 
four  factory  villages  were  then  more  distinctly  separated  than 
they  are  now;  but  their  general  appearance  has  not  otherwise 
radically  been  altered,  except  by  the  erection  of  schoolhouses 
and  of  the  St.  Charles  and  the  Pilgrim  Memorial  Churches. 
Toward  the  southwest,  however,  a  loss  of  industrial  activity  is 
to  be  noted.  The  two  Barkervilles  were,  in  1876,  prosperous 
factory  communities;  the  Shaker  village  flourished  comfortably; 
and,  nearer  at  hand  on  the  west  branch  of  the  Housatonic,  the 
busy  looms  of  L.  Pomeroy's  Sons  gave  employment  to  about 
three  hundred  people.  Lacking  such  ready  intercommunication 
as  is  afforded  at  present  by  the  trolley  and  the  telephone,  each 
of  these  manufacturing  villages,  as  well  as  Coltsville  on  the  east, 
developed  a  more  or  less  individual  and  somewhat  jealous  com- 
munity spirit  of  its  own. 

The  business  depression  and  political  unrest,  which  began  to 
trouble  the  country  in  1873,  had  not  seriously  distressed  Pitts- 
field's  manufacturing  interests;  but  nevertheless  the  prevalent 
spirit  of  the  town  as  to  its  future  was  not  a  spirit  of  optimism. 
Both  domestic  life  and  the  conduct  of  public  affairs  were  affected 
by  a  lack  of  confidence.  It  was  argued  that  neither  the  popula- 
tion nor  the  valuation  of  the  town  ever  could  greatly  increase; 
that  farm  land  in  the  township  was  exhausted,  and  that  the 
water  power  for  textile  manufacturing,  the  town's  chief  indus- 
trial reliance,  was  already  completely  utilized.     Of  course,  it  was 


10  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

possible  to  equip  new  factories  with  steam  power,  and  such  a 
venture,  indeed,  had  been  tried  at  Morningside,  but  not  with 
signal  success. 

Even  more  disturbing  was  the  question  of  the  possible  effect 
of  new  railroads  upon  the  town.  A  main  trunk  line,  connecting 
Boston  with  the  West,  had  been  opened  through  the  Hoosac 
tunnel  and  North  Adams  so  recently  that  its  effect  ujoon  the 
trade,  manufactories,  and  growth  of  Pittsfield  was  still  problemat- 
ical. Another  main  line  to  pass  east  and  west  through  the 
county  at  Lee,  having  been  within  a  few  years  actively  projected, 
had  received  the  temporary  quietus  of  a  governor's  veto;  but 
the  plan  was  at  any  time  susceptible  of  revival,  and  its  execution 
might  endanger  the  continuance  of  Pittsfield's  material  welfare. 

Thus  confronted  by  the  possibility  that  their  town  might 
soon  cease  to  grow  in  wealth  and  population,  the  people  of 
Pittsfield  seem  to  have  evinced  a  disposition  to  make  the  best  of 
the  present,  rather  than  to  busy  themselves  with  plans  for  the 
future.  From  1873  until  1880,  the  enterprise  of  the  community 
was  almost  at  a  standstill;  and  there  was  a  general  subsidence,  or 
at  least  suspension,  of  that  pushing  spirit,  public  and  private, 
which  had  made  Pittsfield  in  1872  resemble  "one  of  the  fast- 
growing  cities  of  the  West",  according  to  the  newspaper  observer 
already  quoted. 

The  social  life  of  the  village,  however,  was  none  the  less 
wholesome  and  enjoyable.  Pittsfield  was  still  a  Yankee  town 
wherein  friendships  were  made  readily  and  widely.  Few  people 
were  so  fastidious  socially  as  to  irritate  themselves  or  their 
neighbors;  a  newcomer  was  impressed  by  the  habit  of  even  the 
leading  men  of  calling  one  another  by  their  youthful  nicknames; 
and  such  democratic  institutions  as  the  town  meeting  and  the 
large  volunteer  fire  companies  were  vigorous  foes  to  the  develop- 
ment of  distinctions  of  caste  and  class. 

The  typical  man  of  standing  in  the  Pittsfield  of  1876  had 
seen  the  village  develop  from  a  semi-agricultural  to  a  manufac- 
turing town;  he  had  acquired  his  influence,  as  he  had  his  proper- 
ty, patiently  and  carefully  at  home;  and  he  preserved  a  whole- 
some regard  for  the  village  way  of  living,  which,  while  it  did  not 
preclude  substantial  comfort,  was  opposed  to  fashionable  dis- 


PITTSFIELD  IN  1876  11 

play.  He  would  drive  the  best  of  horses,  for  instance;  but 
the  jingle  of  an  ornamental  harness  ofiFended  his  ears.  He 
would  indulge  himself  with  the  possession  of  a  farm,  which  he 
did  not  need;  but  it  was  neither  an  experiment  nor  a  plaything, 
and  it  was  conducted  on  the  same  scale  as  the  farm  on  which  he 
had  spent  his  boyhood.  His  wife  would  invite  her  guests  to  a 
"kettle-drum"  or  a  "small-and-early"  in  her  tasteful  drawing- 
room,  or  to  a  five-o'clock  dinner  at  her  lavishly  supplied  table; 
but,  with  equal  contentment,  she  would  entertain  the  same 
guests  by  a  "candy-pull"  or  an  "oyster-roast"  in  her  hospitable 
kitchen . 

The  intellectual  and  esthetic  interests  of  the  community  had 
been  freshly  stimulated,  at  the  period  which  we  are  considering. 
The  enlargement  of  the  public  library  and  the  completion  of  the 
building  for  the  Athenaeum,  the  establishment  of  an  excellent 
seminary  of  music,  the  erection  of  a  theater,  and  the  dawn  of  an 
improvement  in  the  system  of  public  schools  had  recently  em- 
phasized anew,  each  of  them  in  its  own  way,  the  value  of  art  and 
education. 

The  beneficent  influence  of  strongly  supported  churches  and 
religious  societies  was  exerted  potently,  faithfully,  and  amicably. 
There  were  nine  church  edifices  in  the  town.  Of  these,  six  re- 
main;— the  First  Congregational,  St.  Joseph's,  the  South  Con- 
gregational, the  First  Baptist,  the  Methodist  Episcopal,  and  the 
Second  Congregational.  Three  have  disappeared,  and  have 
been  replaced  on  nearly  the  same  sites,  by  the  present  German 
Lutheran,  St.  Stephen's,  and  Notre  Dame  Churches,  the  prede- 
cessor of  the  latter  having  been  called  originally  St.  Jean  le 
Baptiste. 

Pittsfield  at  this  time  was  making  its  first  trial  of  a  permanent 
charity  built  on  lines  broadly  representative  of  different  religious 
beliefs.  The  chief  local  interest  of  many  Pittsfield  women  was 
the  new  House  of  Mercy  hospital,  then  established  on  Francis 
Avenue.  During  1875,  the  first  year  of  its  existence,  the  House 
of  Mercy  cared  for  twenty-two  patients.  The  usefulness  of  the 
hospital  was  perhaps  still  to  be  proved,  and  abundantly  were  the 
years  to  prove  it;  but  already  the  institution  was  powerfully  ef- 


12  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

fective  in  bringing  together  the  members  of  all  the  churches,  as 
a  unit,  in  a  noble  field  of  public  service. 

Social  life  was  far  less  elaborately  organized  than  it  is  now, 
and  social  amusements  were  more  spontaneous.  Clubs  were 
informal  and  usually  short-lived,  although  the  Berkshire  Reading 
Room  Association,  which  moved  into  rooms  in  the  Berkshire 
Life  Insurance  Company's  building  in  1871,  had  an  enjoyable 
existence  from  1863  to  1903.  The  Pleasure  Park  Association, 
precursor  of  a  modern  country  club,  had  become  moribund  before 
1876,  and  had  leased  its  race  track,  stables,  and  clubhouse  on 
Elm  Street,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  village  center. 
Rooms  in  the  United  States  Hotel  building  were  occupied  by  the 
Park  Club  of  those  days,  a  small  and  jovial  organization,  long 
since  extinct.  Fraternal  orders,  however,  flourished  healthfully; 
and  the  quarters  of  the  volunteer  fire  companies  were  pleasant 
and  well-ordered  clubrooms. 

Public  balls  and  masquerades  were  much  in  vogue,  with 
music  by  George  Becker's  orchestra,  or  with  the  assistance  of 
Doring's  band  of  Albany.  Especially  notable  was  the  annual 
ball  of  the  George  Y.  Learned  Engine  Company;  in  1876,  it  was 
attended  in  the  Academy  of  Music,  where  a  dancing-floor  was 
built  over  the  theater-seats,  while  in  a  floral  bower,  supplied  by 
Otto  Kaiser,  a  perfumed  fountain  played  fragrantly. 

In  sleighing-time,  hardly  a  week  passed  without  an  excur- 
sion of  a  large  party  to  Lanesborough  or  Cheshire,^  Lenox  or  Lee, 
for  a  supper  and  a  dance  at  the  village  hotel.  It  was  the  custom, 
too,  that  a  genial  descent  should  be  made,  sometimes  unexpected- 
ly, upon  a  hospitable  farmhouse  in  the  "North  Woods"  or  the 
"East  Part",  and  that  the  visit  should  be  as  unexpectedly  re- 
turned, and  as  hospitably  received.  Coasting  parties,  not  al- 
ways youthfully  constituted  by  any  means,  flocked  to  Church 
Street,  and  Jubilee  Hill;  while  skaters  patronized  Silver  Lake 
and  the  West  Street  meadow,  near  Center  Street. 

Among  the  popular  entertainments,  lectures  were  conspicu- 
ous, although  the  cult  of  the  New  England  lyceum  was  already 
waning.  Amateur  theatrical  performances  seem  to  have  been 
frequent,  especially  by  the  young  people  of  the  Catholic  benevo- 
lent societies.     Lovers  of  classical  music  were  gratified  by  nu- 


PITTSFIELD  IN  1876  13 

merous  concerts,  of  which  the  exceptional  merit  is  still  remem- 
bered, under  the  supervision  often  of  Benjamin  C.  Blodgett  or 
James  I.  Lalor;  and  at  the  theater  might  be  seen  several  of  the 
best  actors  of  the  period. 

Nor  should  public  amusements  of  less  importance  be  forgotten 
— the  itinerant  Punch-and-Judy  shows  at  the  Park,  for  example, 
occasionally  accompanied  by  a  melancholy  bear;  the  street 
auctions  on  West's  corner;  the  traveling  circuses,  which  en- 
camped on  the  "town  lot",  or  on  the  small  pasture  at  the  north- 
east corner  of  Wendell  Avenue  and  East  Housatonic  Street; 
the  races  and  baseball  games  at  the  Pleasure  Park;  the  Swiss 
Bell-ringers  and  the  Bohemian  Glass-blowers  at  West's  or  Bur- 
bank's  Hall;  and  the  exhibitions,  two  or  three  years  later,  of 
strange,  amusing,  and  useless  toys  called  the  phonograph  and  the 
telephone. 

Nothing  of  this  sort,  however,  entertained  and  excited  the 
town  to  a  greater  degree  than  did  the  annual  fair  of  the  Berkshire 
Agricultural  Society.  The  grounds  and  buildings  of  the  society 
covered  thirty  acres  of  a  hill  on  the  west  side  of  Wahconah 
Street,  opposite  the  Bel  Air  factory.  The  fair,  with  all  the 
spirited  accessories  of  a  country  cattle  show,  lasted  for  three 
days,  and  attracted  most  of  the  population  of  the  central  part  of 
Berkshire.  A  journey  to  the  fair  grounds  was  not  always  neces- 
sary to  enjoy  the  humors  of  cattle  show  week.  Rural  horse- 
trading  was  volubly  conducted  on  School  Street,  and  the  pic- 
turesque steeds  of  this  Tattersall's  exhibited  their  preposterous 
paces  by  circling  the  Park. 

During  the  summer,  popular  picnic  grounds  were  the  Curtis 
woods  at  Morningside,  and  Pomeroy's  grove,  nearly  opposite 
the  present  Pomeroy  School  on  West  Housatonic  Street.  Both 
branches  of  the  Housatonic  afforded  clean  swimming-holes  as 
well  as  good  boating.  Oarsmen  frequented  Silver  Lake;  and 
the  waters  of  Onota  were  plowed  by  a  steam  launch  as  early  as 
1869. 

The  glorious  beauty  of  Berkshire  scenery  was  deeply  and 
strongly  appreciated  by  the  men  and  women  of  Pittsfield  long 
before  it  achieved  a  fame  more  widely  spread;  and  a  summer 
day's  excursion  among  the  hills  was  always,  as  always  it  will  be. 


14  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

a  favorite  pastime.  Little  journeys  of  pleasure  over  the  country 
roads  might  have  been  of  necessity  made  in  a  more  leisurely 
fashion  than  they  are  at  present,  but  they  were  not  the  less  de- 
lightful. An  improved  road  over  Potter  Mountain  had  been 
recently  opened;  and  an  observatory  was  projected  at  its  highest 
point.  Much  was  made  of  every  phase  of  outdoor  life.  Camping 
parties  were  often  enjoyed.  In  1877,  many  members  of  the  West 
and  Campbell  families  in  Pittsfield  pitched  tents  for  a  week  beside 
Ashley  Lake,  and  held  a  Sunday  praise-service,  in  which  they  were 
joined  by  one  hundred  people  from  the  town  of  Washington. 

In  the  Pittsfield  directory  of  1876,  one  citizen  is  listed  by 
profession  as  a  hunter.  The  classification  was  sentimental 
rather  than  accurate.  Although  there  were  more  birds  in  the 
woods  then  than  now,  and  a  good  many  more  fish  in  the  streams 
and  lakes,  hunting  and  fishing  could  hardly  have  supplied  the 
sole  means  of  livelihood  the  year  around.  Nevertheless,  not  a 
few  men  partly  supported  themselves  by  hunting,  under  the 
liberal  game  laws  then  in  force;  and  the  North  Street  merchants 
considered  it  worth  while  to  advertise  that  they  would  pay  cash 
for  "raw  skins".  Trout  brooks  within  easy  distance  of  the  vil- 
lage had  not  been  exhausted.  Pontoosuc  Lake  still  justified  Dr. 
Todd's  appellation  of  "the  poor  man's  pork  barrel",  and  numer- 
ous humble  housewives  counted  on  a  steady  supply  of  pickerel 
and  bullheads.  The  Sun  complacently  recorded  in  1876  that 
the  river  at  Taylor's  bridge  on  South  Street  having  been  "blown 
up  with  giant  powder,  several  barrels  of  suckers"  were  thereupon 
captured  by  the  bold  artillerists. 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  legal  authorities  were  moved  by 
this  explosive  fishery.  The  regular  police  force  of  those  days 
consisted  of  seven  men.  Pittsfield  was  a  law-abiding  communi- 
ty, although  there  was  a  good  deal  of  complaint  of  nocturnal 
disorder  in  the  streets.  This  was  due  to  a  boisterous  rather  than 
to  a  vicious  element,  but  the  policemen  needed  not  to  suffer  from 
tedium.  Jail  deliveries  at  the  flimsy  wooden  lockup  on  School 
Street  attracted  merely  casual  notice  from  the  local  press.  One 
inmate  climbed  "through  the  roof"  and  was  seen  no  more;  an- 
other, having  been  liberated  by  a  judicious  friend,  who  "took 
the  key  from  the  peg  beside  the  door  and  unlocked  it",  posted 


PITTSFIELD  IN  1876  15 

himself  across  the  street  from  the  despicable  dungeon,  and  fre- 
quently assaulted  the  night  with  triumphant  outcries.  On 
more  serious  occasions,  when  the  instrumentalities  of  the  police 
proved  inadequate,  the  citizens  were  ready  to  take  the  law  into 
their  own  hands.  Thus  fifty  indignant  neighbors  wrecked  an  of- 
ensive  hostelry  on  Beaver  Street,  and  threw  the  furniture,  crock- 
ery, and  stoves  into  Silver  Lake,  and  there  the  matter  ended. 

The  dual  form  of  local  government,  including  that  of  the 
town  and  that  of  the  fire  district,  was  beginning  to  show  de- 
fects, which  will  hereafter  be  discussed;  but  the  visitor  to  Pitts- 
field  would  have  found  a  high  grade  of  citizenship  engaged  in  the 
administration  of  public  affairs.  If  he  went  to  a  town  meeting, 
he  would  be  impressed  by  its  orderly  attention  to  business,  by 
its  intelligent  breadth  of  view,  and  by  the  shrewdness  and  often 
the  eloquence  of  its  debates;  six  years  later,  in  1882,  the  members 
of  the  Congressional  delegation  to  the  funeral  in  Pittsfield  of 
Thomas  Allen  visited  a  town  meeting,  which  happened  to  be  in 
session,  and  emphatically  praised  its  parliamentary  ability. 

Of  the  population,  one  resident  in  three  was  a  native  of  the 
town,  while  one  in  four  had  been  born  in  a  foreign  country. 
Every  man  elected  to  the  office  of  selectman  between  1855  and 
1876  was  of  Berkshire  birth.  Of  the  3,029  foreign-born  inhabi- 
tants, according  to  the  census  of  1875,  1,658  were  born  in  Ireland, 
464  in  Germany,  449  in  Canada,  210  in  England,  twenty-three 
in  Russia,  and  one  in  Italy.  562  men  were  listed  as  factory 
operatives,  and  491  as  farmers  and  farm  laborers.  There  were 
2,052  dwelling  houses  in  the  town. 

The  starting  point  of  our  narrative,  then,  is  a  prosperous 
Massachusetts  manufacturing  town  which  had  reached,  ac- 
cording to  its  own  reasonable  opinion,  the  limit  of  its  substantial 
growth,  and  which  had  not  quite  outlived  its  rural  characteristics 
and  conservative  village  ways;  a  community  guided  by  forceful 
and  intelligent  men  and  women,  who  had  grown  up  with  it;  a 
town  wherein  the  influence  of  religion,  art,  and  education  was 
strong,  active,  and  well-nurtured,  and  wherein  social  intercourse 
was  pleasurable  and  unrestrained.  Its  past  had  been  honorable 
and  inspiring.  The  future  was  to  determine  in  what  manner 
it  would  meet  confusing  problems  of  rapid  material  development, 
and  of  radical  changes  in  the  texture  of  its  social  fabric. 


CHAPTER  II 
FIFTEEN  YEARS  OF  TOWN  LIFE,  1876-1891 

AT  midnight  of  the  last  day  of  December,  1875,  many  of 
the  windows  in  the  vicinity  of  Park  Square  were  illumi- 
nated, a  bonfire  was  kindled,  the  church  bells  were  rung, 
and  the  faithful  little  fieldpiece,  long  known  to  local  fame  as  the 
George  Y.  Learned  Battery,  roared  out  a  national  salute  in 
honor  of  the  advent  of  the  centennial  year  of  the  nation's  inde- 
pendence. Pittsfield  was  not  moved  to  celebrate  it  otherwise, 
except  by  planting  in  the  Park  a  centennial  tree,  for  which  an 
economical  town  meeting  had  appropriated  $20.  The  centenary 
of  George  Washington's  first  inauguration  was  more  appropriate- 
ly marked  by  the  people  of  the  town,  when,  on  Monday,  April 
thirtieth,  1889,  there  were  services  at  St.  Joseph's  and  at 
Notre  Dame,  a  union  service  at  the  First  Church,  and  a  crowded 
meeting  at  the  Academy  of  Music,  where  John  D.  Long  of 
Hingham  was  the  distinguished  orator  of  the  day.  The  towns- 
people had  the  traditional  New  England  fondness  for  good  public 
speaking,  and  the  habit  of  assembling  to  honor  important  occa- 
sions or  the  memories  of  important  men.  When  President  Gar- 
field died,  in  1881,  they  gathered  twice,  once  at  the  Baptist 
Church,  where  Thomas  A.  Oman  presided  and  addresses  were 
made  by  Joseph  Tucker,  Jarvis  N.  Dunham,  and  Henry  W. 
Taft;  and  again  on  the  next  day,  at  the  Academy  of  Music,  with 
Rev.  J.  L.  Jenkins  as  chairman,  and  Rev.  R.  S.  J.  Burke,  William 
B.  Rice,  and  Henry  L.  Dawes  as  the  speakers.  After  General 
Grant's  death,  in  1885,  a  memorial  meeting  of  especial  impres- 
siveness  was  held  in  the  Methodist  Church;  Rev.  Samuel  Har- 
rison offered  the  prayer,  and  speeches  were  made  by  Morris 
Schaff,  Joseph  Tucker,  Henry  L.  Dawes,  and  James  M.  Barker. 
A  dignified  and  appreciative  spirit,  also,  was  characteristic 
of  the  dedications,  between  1876  and  1891,  of  four  institutions  of 


FIFTEEN  YEARS  OF  TOWN  LIFE,  187G-1891        17 

lasting  value  to  Pittsfield.  The  dedicatory  exercises  in  1876  of 
the  Berkshire  Athenaeum  included  a  prayer  by  Rev,  Mark  Hop- 
kins, the  venerable  and  beloved  president  of  Williams  College, 
and  addresses  by  Thomas  Allen,  William  R.  Plunkett,  Julius 
Rockwell,  and  others.  The  corner  stone  of  the  House  of  Mercy 
building  was  laid  in  1877  by  Mrs.  Curtis  T.  Fenn;  and  among 
the  speakers  were  James  D.  Colt,  and  Rev.  Jonathan  L.  Jenkins. 
The  Berkshire  County  Home  for  Aged  Women  was  dedicated  in 
1889,  when  addresses  were  made  by  Dr.  J.  F.  A.  Adams,  Rev. 
W.  W.  Newton,  Jarvis  N.  Dunham,  and  Rev.  J.  L.  Jenkins.  In 
the  same  year  Richard  T.  Auchmuty  of  Lenox  presided  at  the 
dedicatory  exercises  of  the  Henry  W.  Bishop  3rd  Memorial  Train- 
ing School  for  Nurses;  and,  after  the  presentation  speech  by 
Henry  W.  Bishop,  Joseph  H.  Choate  of  New  York  delivered  the 
principal  address. 

The  community  of  Pittsfield  had  never  become  the  recipient 
and  custodian  of  any  considerable  amount  of  private  bounty 
until  the  establishment  of  these  several  institutions.  They  stim- 
ulated a  local  pride,  both  sober  and  healthful.  Apart  from  the 
direct  good  which  they  conferred  upon  the  public  was  the  in- 
direct benefit  which  they  effected  in  uniting  the  people  of  the 
town  by  a  common  possession,  and  by  the  responsibility  of  con- 
ducting permanent  charitable  agencies  organized  on  broad  and 
non-sectarian  lines. 

The  celebration  of  the  Fourth  of  July  in  1881  was  typical  of 
the  period.  A  burlesque  street  procession  in  the  morning,  called 
"The  Antiques  and  Horribles",  included  elaborate  travesties  of 
the  selectmen,  the  fire  companies,  the  police  force,  and  of  many 
other  local  characters  and  organiza.tions.  At  noon,  the  parade 
of  the  day  was  marshaled  by  Col.  H.  H.  Richardson,  and  the 
new  Berkshire  Germania  Band  made  its  debut.  Athletic  sports 
were  witnessed  on  Park  Square,  where  a  sack  race,  the  climbing 
of  a  slippery  pole,  the  pursuit  of  a  greased  pig,  a  tug-of-war,  and 
a  hose  race  by  the  firemen  enlivened  a  throng  estimated  to  num- 
ber ten  thousand  persons;  and  many  in  the  town  marveled  at 
their  earliest  view  of  a  bicycle  race,  when  four  daring  youths  rode 
on  incredibly  balanced,  high  wheels  down  South  to  Broad  Street 
and  back  to  the  Park  by  way  of  Wendell  Avenue.     An  exhibition 


18  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

of  fireworks  on  the  First  Street  "town  lot"  completed  the  diver- 
sions. 

In  1887  the  Sarsfield  Association  celebrated  the  first  Labor 
Day  by  a  monster  picnic  at  Pontoosuc  Lake.  The  chief  attrac- 
tion was  a  race  between  two  imported  professional  oarsmen,  who 
were  paraded  through  the  streets  in  their  rowing  shells;  but  the 
depleted  waters  of  Pontoosuc  at  that  season  did  not  lend  them- 
selves kindly  to  the  event.  Another  early  Labor  Day  celebra- 
tion of  note  in  Pittsfield  was  that  of  the  Father  Mathew  societies 
of  the  five  western  counties  of  the  state,  in  1890. 

Pittsfield  was  rightfully  and  duly  impressed  with  the  signifi- 
cance, in  1887,  of  celebrations  to  mark  the  twenty-fifth  anniver- 
saries of  the  departure  for  the  front  of  the  Forty-ninth  and 
Thirty-seventh  Massachusetts  regiments,  which  served  in  the 
Civil  War.  The  citizens  contributed  money  and  effort  to  make 
both  of  these  occasions  notable.  The  veterans  of  the  Forty- 
ninth  assembled  on  September  first,  1887,  and  spent  the  day  on 
their  old  camp-ground  at  the  Pleasure  Park.  The  reunion  of  the 
Thirty-seventh  was  held  a  week  later.  Hezekiah  S.  Russell  was 
chairman  of  the  citizens'  committee  of  arrangements,  and  the 
regiment  listened  to  an  address  of  welcome  at  the  Park  from 
Rev.  J.  L.  Jenkins,  and  dined  at  the  Coliseum  on  North  Street, 
where  the  town's  influential  men  gathered  to  honor  their  guests. 
The  superbly  named  Coliseum  was  an  ignoble  wooden  struct- 
ure of  one  story,  which  had  been  originally  built  for  a  roller 
skating  rink  in  1883;  it  stood  on  the  southern  part  of  the  grounds 
now  occupied  by  St.  Joseph's  Convent.  For  several  years  the 
Coliseum  was  the  most  commodious  public  hall  in  Pittsfield,  and 
was  the  scene  of  the  annual  town  meeting,  and  the  only  polling 
place  for  elections.  At  the  national  election  of  1888,  the  largest 
vote  cast  at  a  single  poll  in  the  United  States  was  recorded  there. 
The  building  was  purchased  in  1887  by  Rev.  Edward  H.  Purcell 
of  St.  Joseph's,  and  demolished  preparatory  to  the  establishment 
of  the  convent  in  1895. 

About  the  year  1880,  the  return  of  the  town's  material  pros- 
perity was  made  evident  by  many  new  buildings,  both  for  busi- 
ness and  residential  purposes.  North  Street  was  greatly  im- 
proved by  the  erection  of  Central  Block  in  1881,  on  the  site  of 


FIFTEEN  YEARS  OF  TOWN  LIFE,  1876-1891        19 

the  nest  of  decrepit  tenements  which  had  been  destroyed  as  if 
providentially  by  fire  in  April  of  that  year.  In  November,  the 
Eagle  proclaimed  with  patriotic  and  fervent  pride  that  "the 
number  of  new  houses  that  may  be  counted  in  Pittsfield's  growth 
from  last  November  to  the  present  is  nearly  fifty",  and  that 
"Pittsfield's  industries  were  never  more  fully  employed,  and 
every  machine  is  busy  to  its  best  capacity".  In  1883,  Bartlett 
Avenue  and  Taconic  Street  were  made  available  for  building  lots; 
new  business  blocks  were  erected  at  the  corner  of  North  and 
Summer  Streets,  and  at  Fenn  and  Pearl;  and  for  the  Terry 
Clock  Company  a  brick  shop  was  built  on  South  Church  Street, 
which  was  said  to  be  the  most  completely  equipped  factory  of  its 
kind  in  the  country.  The  England  block  on  the  east  side  of 
North  Street  was  constructed  in  1884,  as  well  as  the  second 
Burbank  building,  north  of  the  American  House;  and  in  1887 
an  annex  on  the  west  was  added  to  that  hotel.  The  only  dwell- 
ing house  remaining  on  North  Street  between  the  Park  and  the 
railroad  bridge  disappeared  when  the  "Milton  Whitney  house" 
was  razed.  It  had  been  known  latterly  as  the  Sherman  and 
as  the  Commercial  Hotel,  and  its  removal  made  way  in  1888  for 
the  WoUison  block,  south  of  the  Academy  of  Music.  The  sec- 
ond Burns  block,  and  the  Brackin  building  on  North  Street,  be- 
tween Union  and  Summer  Streets,  were  erected  in  1890. 

In  1889,  the  expense  of  building  in  the  town  was  half  a  million 
dollars,  a  sum  of  unprecedented  magnitude.  It  included  the 
cost  of  two  new  churches.  Unity  and  St.  Stephen's;  two  new 
charitable  institutions,  the  Bishop  Memorial,  and  the  Home  for 
Aged  Women;  and  two  new  factories,  the  shop  of  the  Cheshire 
Shoe  Company,  and  that  of  W.  E.  Tillotson,  near  Silver  Lake. 
During  the  year,  more  than  $300,000  had  been  spent  for  dwelling 
houses,  and  the  population  had  increased  by  nearly  one  thousand. 

The  necessity  of  building  the  main  village  almost  entirely 
anew  was  at  one  time  barely  escaped.  The  narrow  path  of  the 
phenomenal  hurricane  which  tore  through  the  valley  from  west 
to  east  in  1879  was  less  than  a  mile  distant  from  the  thickly  set- 
tled parts  of  Pittsfield.  No  storm  quite  like  it  has  ever  been  ex- 
perienced by  the  town  or  the  city.  The  day,  July  sixteenth, 
1879,  was  excessively  hot.     About  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 


20  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

the  light  wind  veered  rapidly  from  the  south  to  the  northwest, 
and  above  the  noisy  downpour  of  the  tropical  rain  was  heard  an 
ominous  sound  rare  in  New  England — the  peculiar  and  charac- 
teristic roar  of  the  tornado.  The  funnel-shaped  whirlwind  ap- 
parently began  its  work  of  destruction  in  Pittsjfield  near  the 
corner  of  West  and  Churchill  Streets,  whence  it  swept  east  to  the 
flinty  buttresses  of  Washington  Mountain.  The  path  of  its  full 
strength  was  sixty  rods  wide,  passing  south  of  the  central  village 
at  the  crossing  of  the  Housatonic  river  by  South  Street.  Several 
bridges,  many  buildings,  and  hundreds  of  beautiful  trees  were 
destroyed.  The  loss  of  life  was  miraculously  small;  only  two 
persons  were  killed,  one  at  Pomeroy's  factory,  and  the  other  on 
South  Street,  near  the  river  bridge. 

No  serious  damage  to  any  part  of  the  town  was  ever  threaten- 
ed by  flood,  although  in  December  of  1878  an  exceptional  freshet, 
which  thoroughly  alarmed  the  village  of  Dalton,  submerged 
lower  Fenn  Street  in  Pittsfield,  and  caused  such  an  overflow  of 
Silver  Lake  and  the  neighboring  river  that  travel  in  that  vicinity 
was  suspended  for  several  days. 

On  April  twenty-third,  1881,  the  business  center  of  the  town 
was  menaced  by  destruction  by  fire,  when  the  Weller  buildings 
on  North  Street,  opposite  the  Baptist  Church,  were  burned. 
The  flames  were  discovered  at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon;  and, 
although  a  strong  wind  was  blowing,  the  fire  department  suc- 
ceeded in  confining  them  to  the  wooden  block.  In  the  evening, 
the  owner  of  the  property  arrived  from  his  home  in  a  neighboring 
state,  announced  that  he  would  repair  rather  than  rebuild,  and 
went  to  bed.  Early  the  next  morning,  however,  the  firemen, 
who  were  watching  the  smoking  ruins,  discovered  another  fire 
therein,  and  before  they  extinguished  it,  the  unsightly  structure 
had  been  damaged  beyond  the  possibility  of  restoration.  The 
owner  promptly  sold  out,  and  the  negligent  firemen  of  the  early 
morning  received  guardedly  the  covert  thanks  of  the  community. 

Two  factory  fires  at  about  this  time  excited  the  town.  The 
"lower  stone  mill"  at  Barkerville  was  burned  in  1879;  the  loss 
was  $80,000,  and  the  disaster  dealt  a  blow  to  the  manufacturing 
interests  in  that  section  from  which  they  never  fully  recovered. 
The  fierce  fire  which  consumed  in  half-an-hour  the  main  buildings 


FIFTEEN  YEARS  OF  TOWN  LIFE,  1876-1891        21 

of  the  Pomeroy  factories,  near  West  Housatonic  Street,  occurred 
in  December  of  1885.  Part  of  the  building  had  been  occupied 
for  the  purposes  of  woolen  manufacturing  since  1814,  and  the 
destruction  of  its  tower,  whereon  a  huge  gilt  ram  served  as  a 
vane,  caused  the  loss  of  a  familiar  landmark. 

The  old  medical  college  at  the  foot  of  South  Street  was 
burned  on  April  first,  1876;  and,  in  consequence,  the  problem  of 
providing  accommodations  for  the  high  school  was  the  immediate 
question  which  confronted  the  voters.  For  an  adequate  solution 
the  period  was  unpropitious.  The  stress  of  hard  times  was  in- 
sistent; and  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  the  town  seemed  to  be 
at  a  standstill.  The  two  special  town  meetings,  which  were 
called  in  the  spring  of  1876  to  determine  the  location  of  the  new 
high  school,  were  spirited  and  earnest.  Economy  dictated  the 
choice  of  the  medical  college  site  on  South  Street,  already  owned 
by  the  town;  and,  in  the  debate,  the  contention  between  "north- 
enders"  and  "south-enders",  often  afterward  to  appear,  was  for 
the  first  time  strongly  evident.  The  discussion  engaged  the  en- 
ergies of  the  town's  best  citizens;  of  Ensign  H.  Kellogg,  for  ex- 
ample, who  wished  to  have  the  new  school  nearer  the  northern 
manufacturing  villages;  of  Judge  James  D.  Colt,  who  argued, 
with  characteristic  sentiment,  the  value  of  a  beautiful  view  from 
classroom  windows;  of  hard-headed  S.  W.  Bowerman,  who 
thought  that  the  pupils  should  not  be  thereby  distracted;  of 
Edward  Learned,  whose  trained  surveyor's  hand  deftly  drew  a 
map  on  the  wall  of  the  town  hall  to  illustrate  his  speech;  of 
Oliver  W.  Robbins,  who  declared  that  he  and  his  sisters,  m 
childhood  days,  walked  two  miles  to  school  and  thrived  by  the 
exercise;  and  of  John  V.  Barker,  who  said  he  could  prove,  on  the 
contrary,  that  the  health  of  the  juvenile  Robbinses  was  not  al- 
ways what  it  should  have  been.  Eventually  the  South  Street 
site  was  selected. 

Among  the  other  locations  suggested,  that  most  persistently 
urged  was  the  "town  lot"  on  First  Street,  between  the  German 
Lutheran  Church  and  the  railroad.  The  ill-kept  condition  of 
this  piece  of  town  property  was  not  creditable.  After  its  disuse, 
about  1850,  as  a  village  burying  ground,  it  had  been  so  robbed  of 
soil  and  gravel,  and  so  denuded  of  grass  and  trees,  that  it  was  an 


2S  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

ugly  blot  upon  that  part  of  the  village.  The  voters  who  met  in 
the  April  town  meeting  of  1883,  stirred  to  action  by  a  vigorous 
newspaper  campaign  that  had  been  conducted  by  Miss  Anna  L. 
Dawes,  appropriated  $1500  to  make  the  town  lot  a  public  park, 
and  from  this  vote  originated  the  present  Common. 

"When,  in  1886,  the  first  street  railway  in  Pittsfield  was  to  be 
laid,  a  route  through  First  Street,  instead  of  North  Street,  was 
advocated  by  a  few  citizens  who  protested  vainly  against  the 
laying  of  tracks  in  the  town's  main  thoroughfare.  The  railway, 
to  run  from  the  Union  Station  to  Pontoosuc,  had  been  projected 
by  Boston  investors  in  the  fall  of  1885.  Of  the  capital  stock  of 
the  company,  one-fifth,  or  $10,000,  was  subscribed  in  Pittsfield; 
and  the  original  directors  were  Thaddeus  Clapp,  who  was  presi- 
dent, T.  L.  Allen,  T.  D.  Peck,  A.  A.  Mills,  H.  R.  Peirson,  G.  H. 
Towle  of  Boston,  and  F.  W.  Harwood  of  Natick.  The  selectmen 
granted  the  franchise  in  February,  1886;  and  work  at  once  be- 
gan, so  that  the  first  cars,  drawn  by  horses,  were  placed  in  op- 
eration on  July  third  following,  when  the  use  of  the  road  was 
gratuitously  extended  to  a  large  party  of  guests  for  the  initial 
run.  Upon  this  occasion,  the  Sun  waxed  lyrical: 
"Roll  on,  thou  gorgeous  Car  of  Progress,  roll! 

Paw,  steed!     Tinkle  the  signal  bell! 

Here's  luck  to  thee,  and  to  the  men 

Who  pay  the  bills!     We  hope  that  every  trip 

Will  have  loads  like  the  first,  but  with 

More  money  in  them." 
The  introduction  of  the  telephone  did  not  attract  so  much 
local  attention.  This  was  in  1877,  when  in  May,  at  the  Academy 
of  Music,  a  demonstration  was  attempted  of  the  power  of  the 
newly  devised  instrument  to  transmit  sounds  from  Westfield. 
The  notes  of  a  reed  organ  and  of  a  cornet  were  faintly  heard  by 
a  part  of  the  Pittsfield  audience;  but  transmission  of  the  voice 
seemed  a  failure,  and  sapient  scepticism  made  merry.  About  three 
hundred  people  had  been  attracted  to  the  theater,  a  number  in- 
sufficient to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  exhibition.  The  first  prac- 
tical use  of  the  telephone  in  Pittsfield  was  in  March,  1878,  over 
a  line  between  the  Pontoosuc  factory  and  the  Pittsfield  National 
Bank;  and  the  first  exchange  was  established  in  1879.  During 
the  previous  year,  the  Berkshire  Life  Insurance  Company  had 


FIFTEEN  YEARS  OF  TOWN  LIFE,  1876-1891        23 

installed,  in  its  building,  Pittsfield's  first  public  elevator.  The 
electric  light  was  first  exhibited  in  Pittsfield  in  1881.  In  1883,  a 
few  North  Street  merchants,  headed  by  Alexander  Kennedy, 
organized  a  small  corporation  for  the  purpose  of  supplying  their 
stores  with  arc  lamps.  Ten  lights  of  that  sort  were  then  in  use; 
and  in  1885  the  street  lighting  committee  of  the  fire  district  set 
up  seven  arc  lamps  for  an  experiment. 

During  the  brief  period  of  six  years,  then,  both  the  commercial 
and  the  domestic  life  of  the  village  had  been  modernized  and 
made  more  comfortable  by  the  introduction  of  telephones,  public 
elevators,  electric  lights,  and  street  cars.  To  these  should  be 
added  the  first  establishment  of  a  daily  newspaper  in  Pittsfield. 
Nathaniel  C.  Fowler,  Jr.,  began  the  publication  of  the  Evening 
Journal  on  September  twenty-seventh,  1880.  Its  birth  was  one 
of  travail;  the  presses,  when  printing  the  first  two  numbers, 
were  moved  entirely  by  hand  power,  because  of  a  breakdown  of 
the  mechanical  equipment.  Mr.  Fowler's  determination,  how- 
ever, overcame  many  obstacles,  and  his  paper  was  able  to  take 
at  once  a  vigorous  part,  on  the  Republican  side,  in  the  national 
election  which  resulted  in  the  presidency  of  Garfield. 

The  political  complexion  in  national  affairs  of  the  town  of 
Pittsfield  in  its  latter  days  was  consistently  Democratic.  Its 
vote  in  1876  was  for  Tilden  1,236,  and  for  Hayes  953;  in  1880, 
for  Hancock  1,211,  and  for  Garfield  1,103;  in  1884,  for  Cleveland 
1,547,  and  for  Blaine  1,099;  and  in  1888,  for  Cleveland  1,644,  and 
for  Harrison,  1,474.  The  balloting  was  accomplished  at  a  single 
poll,  and  occasionally  enlivened  by  somewhat  boisterous  episodes; 
but  never  to  the  point  of  turbulence  or  injustice.  It  was  an  era 
of  noisy  political  campaigning,  of  strenuous  oratory  and  frequent 
rallies,  of  torchlight  processions  and  nocturnal  parading  by  uni- 
formed "phalanxes,"  and  "legions".  During  the  presidential 
campaign  of  1876,  a  local  editor  modestly  reported  that  "one 
hundred  torches  filled  the  entire  length  of  our  spacious  main 
boulevard  with  a  sea  of  light".  Residences  and  places  of  busi- 
ness along  the  line  of  march  were  illuminated  elaborately  upon 
such  occasions.  A  procession  in  Pittsfield  of  Harrison's  sup- 
porters in  1888  included  over  four  thousand  torch  bearers,  re- 
cruited from  the  county  at  large. 


24  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

The  town  of  Pittsfield  by  vote  refused  to  license  the  sale  of 
liquor  only  in  1886.  Under  the  state  regulations  then  existing, 
there  were  in  187G  fifty-four  liquor  licenses  of  various  classes 
operative  in  the  village;  and  this  number  did  not  decrease  for 
several  years. 

After  1876,  the  town's  equipment  of  hotels  was  not  materially 
altered,  despite  some  public-spirited  effort,  until  the  enlargement 
of  the  American  House,  in  1887.  On  Summer  Street,  the  inde- 
fatigable Abraham  Burbank  supervised  the  conduct  of  the  Berk- 
shire House,  to  which  direct  access  from  North  Street  was 
closed  in  1884  by  the  erection  of  one  of  his  many  business  blocks; 
and  he  continued  capably  to  direct  in  person  the  hotel,  which 
bore  his  name,  near  the  railroad  station.  The  American  House, 
owned  by  Cebra  Quackenbush,  was  managed  by  G.  H.  Gale,  and 
later  by  William  St.  Lawrence,  who  was  succeeded  in  1889  by 
the  firm  of  A.  W.  Plumb  and  George  W.  Clark.  During  the 
summer  vacations,  the  school  buildings  at  Maplewood  were  used 
for  hotel  purposes  by  several  landlords,  including  William  St. 
Lawrence  and  EHsha  Taft;  in  1887,  Arthur  W\  Plumb  assumed 
the  management,  which  he  has  long  and  successfully  continued. 
In  1885,  Elisha  Taft  leased  the  Robert  Pomeroy  residence  on 
East  Street,  and  conducted  it  as  a  hotel  under  the  name  of  the 
Homestead  Inn. 

Less  pretentious  houses  of  public  entertainment  were  the 
Cottage  and  the  Farmers'  Hotels  on  West  Street;  and  at  the 
Fountain  House  on  Depot  Street,  Rudolph  Schmidt  began,  as 
early  as  1875,  a  tenancy  which  continued  for  twenty  years. 
There  the  visitor  might  find,  as  if  transplanted  from  a  German 
village,  a  temperate  and  old-fashioned  bierhaus,  militantly  gov- 
erned by  a  quaint  autocrat,  whose  humor,  kindliness,  and  sturdy 
good  citizenship  caused  genial  memories  of  him  long  to  be  cherish- 
ed. The  town's  first  restaurant  conducted  on  lines  more  metro- 
politan was  the  "Palais  Royal",  so-called,  in  the  Academy  of 
Music  building. 

The  quantity  of  professional  dramatic  art  exhibited  in  the 
Academy  was  not  large,  but  its  quality  was  excellent.  With  the 
exception  of  Edwin  Booth,  the  most  eminent  contemporary 
actors  played  there,  until  about  1888,  not  annually,  but  with  a 


FIFTEEN  YEARS  OF  TOWN  LIFE,  1876-1891        25 

regularity  forbidden  later  to  small  cities  and  towns  by  the 
theatrical  conditions  of  the  country.  During  this  period  Pitts- 
field  saw,  for  example,  William  J.  Florence,  Mme.  Janauschek, 
E.  L.  Davenport,  Dion  Boucicault,  William  Warren,  Margaret 
Mather,  Rose  Coghlan,  Thomas  W.  Keene,  John  T.  Raymond, 
Louis  James,  John  McCullough,  Marie  Wainwright,  Lotta,  and 
Maggie  Mitchell;  Joseph  Jefferson,  who  spent  the  day,  under 
the  escort  of  local  fishermen,  on  a  trout  brook;  Lawrence  Barrett, 
who  was  a  guest  of  Robert  Pomeroy;  and  Mary  Anderson,  with 
whom  some  Pittsfield  youngsters,  helplessly  demoralized  by  her 
fame  and  beauty,  went  coasting  on  the  Church  Street  hill. 

Theodore  Thomas,  in  1885,  brought  his  famous  orchestra  to 
Pittsfield,  and  gave  a  concert  at  the  Coliseum,  with  Emma  Juch 
as  the  vocal  soloist.  The  town  was  by  no  means  unaccustomed 
to  good  public  performances  of  the  best  music.  The  music 
school  conducted  for  three  years  on  Wendell  Avenue  until  1881 
by  Benjamin  C.  Blodgett  was  of  exceptional  merit  and  scope  for 
a  town  of  Pittsfield's  size;  and  his  artistic  enthusiasm  and  ideals 
were  able  to  affect  the  community  beyond  the  circle  of  his  pupils. 
The  village  owed  to  him  its  first  hearing  of  an  adequate  per- 
formance of  an  oratorio,  when,  in  1879,  he  directed  a  production 
of  "Elijah",  in  which  members  of  the  Harvard  Symphony  Or- 
chestra of  Boston  participated.  Two  years  thereafter,  Mr. 
Blodgett  assumed  the  supervision  of  the  musical  department  at 
Smith  College.  In  1889,  Pittsfield  citizens,  among  whom  Edward 
S.  Francis  was  prominent,  organized  the  Berkshire  Musical  So- 
ciety, and  promoted  a  series  of  concerts  on  a  somewhat  elaborate 
scale,  and  initiated  at  the  Coliseum.  The  influence  of  James  I. 
Lalor  upon  local  appreciation  of  good  music  during  this  period 
was  constantly  uplifting;  and  under  his  leadership  the  musical 
services  at  St.  Joseph's,  where  he  was  choir  director,  gave  the 
highest  enjoyment  to  the  entire  music-loving  public  as  well  as 
to  his  fellow  churchmen. 

To  the  pastor  of  the  First  Church,  Rev.  J.  L.  Jenkins,  was 
due  the  inception  of  a  charitable  organization  which  shared  with 
the  House  of  Mercy  the  distinction  of  marking  a  change  in 
the  method  of  Pittsfield's  philanthropy.  The  Union  for  Home 
Work  was  formed  in  1878.     For  the  relief  of  the  poor  in  that 


26  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

year,  the  community  was  paying  about  $7,000  through  the  town 
officials,  and  about  $3,000  through  the  channels  of  private  and 
parochial  charities.  A  temperance  revival  had  resulted  in  the 
opening  of  a  coffee  room;  and  its  managers  had  supplemented  it 
by  organizing  a  sewing  class  and  a  modest  employment  office. 
For  these  purposes,  association  on  a  larger  scale  was  effected  at 
a  public  meeting.  It  was  declared  that  the  Union  for  Home 
Work  should  seek  the  following  objects:  "The  relief  of  the  poor, 
the  reform  of  the  bad,  the  prevention  and  decrease  of  pauperism 
and  begging  at  the  door".  The  Protestant  clergymen  of  the 
town,  and  two  men  and  two  women  from  each  parish,  constituted 
a  board  of  management.  The  organization  soon  proved  its 
practical  value.  A  superintendent  was  employed,  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Union  were  established  in  a  house  on  Dunham 
Street,  and  the  work  of  the  association  was  beneficently  main- 
tained. 

It  may  have  been  that  the  spirit  of  co-operation  between  the 
local  churches,  fostered  by  the  Union  for  Home  Work,  had  in  it 
the  suggestive  germ  which  inspired  the  initiation  in  Pittsfield  of 
the  American  Congress  of  Churches  of  1885,  and  of  several  years 
subsequent  thereto.  The  attention  of  the  religious  bodies  of  the 
country  was  awakened  in  1883  by  a  circular  letter,  from  seven 
Berkshire  clergymen  who  represented  the  Episcopalian,  Metho- 
dist, Congregational,  and  Baptist  beliefs.  It  suggested  a  na- 
tional Church  Congress,  to  bring  together  "men  of  freedom  of 
conviction  and  largeness  of  view",  who  might  unite,  irrespective 
of  church  names,  for  Christian  work  in  "social  matters,  such 
as  temperance,  divorce,  and  the  relations  of  capital  and  labor". 
The  signers  were  W.  W.  Newton,  J.  L.  Jenkins,  George  W.  Gile, 
C.  H.  Hamlin,  T.  T.  Munger,  George  Skene,  and  J.  M.  Turner. 
The  letter  elicited  a  national  response  immediate  and  hearty 
A  preliminary  meeting  was  held  at  the  American  House  in  Pitts- 
field  in  June  of  1884,  when  it  was  announced  that  the  purpose 
of  the  movement  was  "to  promote  Christian  unity,  and  to  ad- 
vance the  kingdom  of  God  by  a  free  discussion  of  the  great  re- 
ligious, moral,  and  social  questions  of  the  day."  The  fir.st  Con- 
gress assembled  at  Hartford  in  ^lay  of  the  next  year,  and  other 
successful  sessions  were  held  at  Cleveland,  and  St.  Louis,  but  the 
organization  was  not  destined  to  survive. 


FIFTEEN  YEARS  OF  TOWN  LIFE,  1876-1891        27 

The  closing  in  1884  of  the  school  for  girls  at  Maple  wood  was 
an  event  which,  although  recognized  as  inevitable,  occasioned 
no  little  sentimental  regret  among  the  older  families  in  the  town. 
The  institution  had  been  in  existence  for  forty-three  years.  In 
its  flourishing  prime,  it  had  been  a  valuable  contribution  to  the 
prosperity  of  the  village,  and  had  added  its  tone  of  refinement 
to  social  life.  It  could  not  well  compete,  however,  with  en- 
dowed colleges  for  women,  and  the  deterioration  of  its  latter 
years  was  due  perhaps  to  a  lack  of  capital  sufficient  to  maintain 
an  establishment  of  its  size  through  a  long  season  of  financial 
depression. 

The  period  of  business  distress  between  1870  and  1880  was 
burdensome  to  the  textile  manufacturers  of  Berkshire,  and 
heavy  failures  in  this  branch  of  industry  discouraged  the  people 
in  both  the  northern  and  southern  sections  of  the  county.  The 
textile  mills  of  Pittsfield,  on  the  contrary,  were  generally  un- 
troubled, although  the  factory  at  Taconic  was  silent  from  1873 
to  1880.  The  next  decade  was  one  of  returning  activity.  In 
1890,  the  town's  textile  manufactories  showed  substantial  gains, 
in  spite  of  idle  sets  of  cards  at  Barkerville  and  Pomeroy's.  The 
mills  of  the  Pontoosuc  Company  and  of  S,  N.  and  C.  Russell  had 
held  their  own.  Loss  in  local  industry  elsewhere  had  been  coun- 
terbalanced by  the  success  of  W.  E.  Tillotson's  new  mill  near 
Silver  Lake,  of  the  knitting  shop  of  D.  M.  Collins  and  Company, 
of  the  manufactories  at  Bel  Air  and  Morningside  of  Petherbridge 
and  Purnell,  and  by  the  largely  increased  capacities  at  the  mills 
controlled  by  Jabez  L.  and  Thomas  D.  Peck  on  Peck's  Road,  by 
the  firm  of  Tillotson  and  Power  near  West  Pittsfield,  and  by 
that  of  Wilson  and  Glennon  at  Taconic. 

It  is,  however,  in  the  development  of  manufacturing  enter- 
prises other  than  textile  that  this  era  is  chiefly  significant  in  the 
industrial  annals  of  the  town.  The  machine  shops,  for  example, 
maintained  on  McKay  Street  in  1872  by  William  Clark  and 
Company,  were  becoming  rapidly  and  soundly  successful  under 
the  guidance  of  E.  D.  Jones.  A.  H.  Rice  and  Company,  on 
Robbins  Avenue  and  later  on  Burbank  Street,  were  busily  rais- 
ing the  quality  and  quantity  of  their  output  of  braid.  The 
brewery  of  Gimlich  and  White  was  establishing  its  excellent 


28  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

reputation.  In  the  vicinity  of  Silver  Lake,  the  manufacture  of 
shoes  was  prosecuted  with  dihgence  by  Robbins  and  Kellogg, 
the  Pittsfield  Shoe  Company,  and  the  Cheshire  Shoe  Company, 
of  which  the  last-named  was  induced  in  1889,  partly  by  the  co- 
operation of  local  investors,  to  move  to  Pittsfield.  In  1883,  the 
Kellogg  Steam  Power  building  at  Morningside  was  a  curious 
beehive,  housing  simultaneously  some  of  the  machinery  of  the 
Bel  Air  Manufacturing  Company,  of  the  Pittsfield  Tack  Com- 
pany, and  of  the  Terry  Clock  Company. 

About  1879,  George  H.  Bliss,  then  a  resident  of  Pittsfield,  in- 
vented a  device  for  telephone  signals,  which  was  operated  by 
clockwork  attached  to  each  instrument;  and  it  was  principally 
through  his  efforts  in  1880  that  the  Terry  Clock  Company  was 
organized,  and  that  the  three  brothers  Terry  were  persuaded  to 
come  to  Pittsfield  from  Connecticut,  where  their  ancestors  had 
been  some  of  the  pioner  clock-makers  in  the  United  States. 
The  new  company  soon  became  of  importance  to  the  town,  not 
only  because  of  the  number  of  persons  it  employed,  but  also 
because  of  the  extended  sale  of  its  product,  which  advertised  the 
name  of  Pittsfield  in  many  thousands  of  households.  In  1888, 
the  business  was  reorganized,  under  the  title  of  the  Russell  and 
Jones  Clock  Company,  and  soon  afterward  it  was  discontinued. 

The  earlier  career  of  the  town's  single  paper  mill,  built  in 
1863  by  Thomas  Colt  close  to  the  Dalton  line,  was  one  of  oddly 
contrasting  vicissitudes.  After  a  long  period  of  idleness,  the 
mill  was  purchased  in  1876  by  Chalmers  Brothers  and  Baxter,  a 
firm  consisting  of  five  brothers  and  their  brother-in-law.  They 
utilized  the  fine  mill  for  the  manufacture  of  paper  for  paper 
collars;  nearly  all  the  help  employed,  excepting  the  girls  in  the 
rag  room,  were  the  partners  and  members  of  their  families,  and 
the  only  large  item  of  expense  is  said  to  have  been  the  interest 
on  the  investment.  In  spite  of  this  peculiar  economical  advan- 
tage, the  venture  did  not  prosper.  In  1879  the  property  was 
bought  by  Crane  and  Company  of  Dalton;  and  the  mill  once 
devoted  to  the  production  of  paper  collars  was  expensively 
transformed  into  a  manufactory  of  the  most  aristocratic  paper, 
from  one  point  of  view,  in  the  country — the  paper  used  by  the 
national  government  for  its  national  bank  bills  and  treasury 


FIFTEEN  YEARS  OF  TOWN  LIFE,  1876-1891        29 

notes.  The  building  was  burned  in  1892,  and  was  immediately 
replaced  by  the  present  "Government  Mill". 

The  most  extraordinary  industrial  enterprise  of  this  period 
of  the  tov/n's  history  was  conducted  in  1887  on  Depot  Street, 
where  an  alchemist,  who  seems  to  have  stepped  out  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  set  up  a  shop  for  the  conversion  of  scrap  iron  into  copper. 
He  was  a  skilled  metal-worker,  who  had  served  long  and  com- 
petently for  the  Terry  Clock  Company,  and  he  was  able  to  con- 
vince a  local  capitalist  that  he  had  discovered  the  mighty  secret 
of  transmutation.  The  local  capitalist,  accordingly,  provided 
for  him  a  medieval-looking  laboratory,  with  mysterious  vats, 
retorts,  and  all  the  machinery  of  Cagliostro.  One  day,  while 
the  alchemist  was  at  dinner,  the  capitalist  became  overeager, 
and  searched  for  copper  in  a  bubbling  vat,  with  the  assistance  of 
a  lighted  candle.  The  results  were  a  violent  explosion  of  gas, 
the  flaying  of  the  capitalistic  countenance,  the  instant  with- 
drawal of  financial  support,  and  the  collapse  of  the  business. 

In  1885,  the  Edison  incandescent  electric  lamp  was  intro- 
duced to  Pittsfield,  through  its  use  at  Christmas  time  in  the 
jewelry  store  on  North  Street  of  F.  A.  Robbins.  It  is  probable 
that  many  people  thought  that  the  new  light  was  merely  an  ad- 
vertising scheme  for  the  holiday  season;  it  is  certain  that  no- 
body realized  the  far-reaching  influence  which  it  was  destined 
to  exert  upon  the  prosperity  and  even  upon  the  character  of  the 
town.  The  result  of  Mr.  Robbins'  trial  of  the  device  was  the 
formation,  in  1887,  of  a  second  electric  lighting  company,  called 
the  Pittsfield  Illuminating  Company;  and  of  this  small  corpora- 
tion the  president  was  William  Stanley,  Jr.,  whose  home  was 
then  in  Great  Barrington, 

The  local  field  was  obviously  not  large  enough  for  two  electric 
lighting  concerns,  and  in  1890  a  consolidation  was  effected,  under 
the  name  of  the  Pittsfield  Electric  Company.  William  A. 
W'hittlesey,  who  had  recently  become  a  resident  of  the  town,  was 
the  treasurer;  and  he  built,  on  the  corner  of  Eagle  Street  and 
Renne  Avenue,  a  brick  building  for  the  company's  plant.  The 
upper  floor  was  utilized  by  Mr.  Stanley  as  a  laboratory.  He 
assembled  a  small  group  of  young,  zealous,  and  brilliant  elec- 
tricians of  his  own  stamp;   and  in  1890,  at  his  suggestion,  a  few 


30  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

local  stockholders  organized  upon  a  modest  capital  the  Stanley 
Electric  Manufacturing  Company  and  went  into  the  business  of 
making  electrical  transformers  in  a  small,  wooden  building  on 
Clapp  Avenue.  There  the  seed  was  sown  which  was  to  germi- 
nate and  grow  into  Pittsfield's  greatest  industrial  activity — the 
manufacture  of  electrical  machinery. 

It  is  a  strange  coincidence  that  the  date  of  the  beginning  of 
this  industry  was  also  the  date  of  the  end  of  the  town  of  Pitts- 
field  and  of  the  birth  of  the  city.  To  say  that  the  coincidence 
was  other  than  fortuitous,  would  be,  of  course,  wholly  fantastic; 
nevertheless,  it  is  true  that  a  certain  progressive  spirit,  evidenced 
by  the  change  in  1891  to  a  city  form  of  government,  was  quicken- 
ed by  the  advent  of  the  keen,  cosmopolitan  men  whom  the  new 
industry  attracted  to  Pittsfield.  The  birth  of  the  company  was 
a  peculiarly  fitting  conclusion  to  the  period  between  1876  and 
1891,  which  this  chapter  has  briefly  surveyed. 

Since  the  abandonment  of  his  musket  factory  by  Lemuel 
Pomeroy  in  1846,  Pittsfield's  manufacturing  had  been  practically 
confined,  for  nearly  half  a  century,  to  the  making  of  woolen  and 
cotton  cloth;  and  during  the  Civil  War,  and  the  decade  there- 
after, the  town's  chief  material  dependence  was  the  prosperity  of 
its  textile  manufacturers — of  men  like  the  Barkers,  the  Stearnses, 
the  Russells,  the  Pomeroys,  Edward  Learned,  and  Jabez  L. 
Peck.  The  notion  that  any  other  industries  might  be  consider- 
ably developed  seems  not  to  have  been  apprehended  until  about 
1880,  when  the  manufacture  of  shoes  began  to  be  important. 
However,  a  general  condition  of  immobility  had  been  produced. 
Agricultural  interests,  if  not  moribund,  were  at  best  infirm. 
When  the  "woolen  business"  slackened,  the  community  twirled 
its  thumbs,  and  waited  placidly  for  better  times.  Pittsfield's 
banks  had  become  concerned  largely  with  upholding  the  textile 
mill  owners,  and  Pittsfield's  merchants  had  become  dependent 
largely  upon  the  running  of  the  looms. 

After  1880,  this  somewhat  over-complacent  attitude  showed 
signs  of  healthful  change.  The  generation  of  older  manufactur- 
ers began  to  pass  away,  and  necessary  changes  in  the  ownership 
and  control  of  some  of  the  textile  mills  caused  profitless  intervals 
of  disorganization.     The  younger  business  men  sought  oppor- 


FIFTEEN  YEARS  OF  TOWN  LIFE,  1876-1891        31 

tunity  in  other  fields  of  endeavor.  The  banks,  increased  in 
number  by  the  chartering  of  the  Third  National  in  1881,  culti- 
vated a  less  restricted  clientage.  Progressive  merchants  dis- 
played willingness  to  contribute  toward  the  encouragement  and 
importation  of  new  enterprises.  In  1890,  the  town,  to  use  a 
Yankee  phrase,  was  "yeasting"  again,  after  a  season  of  industrial 
sluggishness. 

The  leaven  was  not  without  its  effect  upon  social  life,  but  in 
this  respect  Pittsfield  surrendered  its  village  traits  with  reluctance 
and  perhaps  with  obstinacy.  By  no  means  had  they  been  com- 
pletely surrendered  in  1891.  The  increase  of  population  in  fif- 
teen years  had  been  only  about  five  thousand;  the  newer  ele- 
ments had  altered  its  social  character  only  slightly.  Strangers 
were  sometimes  amused,  sometimes  annoyed,  to  find  that  the 
geographical  isolation  of  the  town  among  the  hills  was  still  re- 
flected in  the  self-contentment  of  its  pleasant  and  cultivated  so- 
ciety, proud  of  the  strides  forward  which  had  been  taken  in  the 
administration  of  public  charity,  the  maintenance  of  public  edu- 
cation, the  acquisition  of  public  improvements  and  conveniences, 
and  the  development  of  new  industries. 

Nor  did  the  town  lack  a  laureate.  It  was  at  this  period  that 
the  community  was  exhilarated  by  the  earnest  poetical  efforts  of 
a  respected  citizen  and  capable  manufacturer  of  step-ladders, 
who  published  a  collection  of  his  memorable  verses;  the  quota- 
tion of  a  single  stanza  shall  here  suffice. 

"If  Berkshire  County  was  a  wheel 
Pittsfield  would  be  the  hub,  of  course. 
It's  truly  called  the  county  seat. 
Her  attractions  and  location  are  hard  to  beat". 


CHAPTER  III 
TOWN  GOVERNMENT,  1876-1891 

THE  chief  interest  which  may  be  claimed  for  a  description 
of  Pittsfield's  town  government,  during  its  final  fifteen 
years,  springs  from  the  fact  that  for  a  part  of  that  period 
Pittsfield  was  the  largest  community  in  the  country  conducting 
its  public  affairs  according  to  the  New  England  town  meeting 
system.  Though  essays  on  the  origin,  theory,  and  practice  of 
this  familiar  method  of  municipal  government  exist  in  an  abun- 
dant store,  the  particular  case  of  Pittsfield  seems  to  warrant  at- 
tention, because  the  town  clung  to  the  town  meeting  system  for 
so  many  years  after  it  was  large  enough  to  be  a  city. 

In  1876,  the  gigantic  and  audacious  peculations  of  the  Tweed 
ring  in  New  York  had  not  only  dismayed  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  but  discredited  for  a  time  the  city  form  of  govern- 
ment throughout  the  country;  and  under  these  circumstances 
New  England  towns  congratulated  themselves  with  especial  zest 
upon  their  possession  of  the  town  meeting  system.  To  doubt 
its  complete  efficacy  for  good  was  to  doubt  the  worth  of  self- 
government.  The  town  meeting,  as  conducted  in  Pittsfield, 
was  apparently  the  very  exemplification  of  the  democratic  ideal, 
for  with  equal  privileges  of  vote  and  voice  the  citizens  assembled 
to  legislate  upon  local  affairs,  to  make  appropriations  for  high- 
ways, schools,  and  contingent  expenses,  to  elect  and  instruct  the 
town  officials,  to  revise  and  accept  the  jury  list,  and  to  transact 
any  business  not  beyond  the  limit  of  their  self-made  warrant, 
previously  published,  under  which  the  meeting  was  convened. 
It  could  erect  special  committees  of  its  own,  and  could  be  ad- 
journed only  at  its  own  pleasure. 

The  objects  of  consideration  were  multifarious.  At  the 
Pittsfield  town  meeting  in  1876,  it  is  of  informal,  but  not  in- 
credible, record  that  Oliver  W.  Robbins,  a  vigilant  guardian  of 


TOWN  GOVERNMENT,  1876-lSOl  33 

the  public  weal,  held  the  floor  upon  seventy-eight  different  oc- 
casions. The  meeting  might,  and  did,  thoughtfully  decide  com- 
plicated questions  of  financial,  governmental,  or  educational 
policy,  and  then  proceed,  with  equal  fervor,  to  discuss  the  wis- 
dom of  illuminating  the  clock  on  the  Baptist  Church.  Articles 
in  the  Pittsfield  town  meeting  warrants  of  those  days  testify 
that  the  voters  were  as  cheerfully  ready  "to  see  if  the  town  will 
ask  the  legislature  to  extend  to  women  who  are  citizens  the  right 
to  hold  town  offices  and  to  vote  in  town  affairs  on  the  same  terms 
as  male  citizens",  as  they  were  "to  see  if  the  town  will  authorize 
the  school  committee  to  transport  scholars  from  the  Sikes  Dis- 
trict to  the  Tracy  District  for  an  experiment";  and  the  esthetic 
value  of  vocal  music  was  debated  with  no  less  pertinacity  than 
was  the  right  method  of  building  sluiceways. 

Such  a  system  could  not  fail  to  be  broadly  instructive.  It 
taught  each  voter  a  lesson  in  practical  government  by  accustom- 
ing him  to  the  methods  of  public  deliberation,  and  it  informed 
him  plainly  of  his  duties  and  rights  as  a  citizen.  He  could  ac- 
tually see  that  his  vote  affected,  not  only  the  community  vaguely 
as  a  whole,  but  also  himself,  immediately  and  personally.  He 
had  directly  shared,  for  example,  in  selecting  the  assessor,  who 
determined  the  amount  of  his  tax,  and  the  collector,  to  whom  he 
paid  it;  the  juryman,  to  whom  his  most  important  interests 
might  be  confided,  and  the  constable,  who  was  charged  with  the 
maintenance  of  the  peace  of  the  Commonwealth  around  his 
dwelling;  and,  in  the  fire  district  meeting,  he  had  helped  to 
choose  the  men  whose  duty  it  might  be  to  save  that  dwelling 
from  destruction. 

The  prayer,  with  which  the  town  meeting  was  invariably 
opened,  was  not  an  empty  formality. 

The  selectmen  of  Pittsfield  in  1876  were  John  C.  Parker, 
Alonzo  E.  Goodrich,  and  Solomon  N.  Russell,  and  each  one  of 
them  was  re-elected  annually  until  1881.  Under  the  town 
meeting  system,  striking  instances  of  continual  re-election  are 
noticeable,  and  the  traditional  fickleness  of  a  free  and  popular 
electorate  is  not  conspicuously  apparent  in  the  history  of  New 
England  towns.  In  the  Berkshire  town  of  Peru,  for  example, 
one  selectman  was  re-elected  annually  for  half  a  century.     An 


34  PIISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

essay  by  John  Fiske  cites  an  instance  where,  in  New  England, 
the  office  of  town  clerk  was  filled  by  three  members  of  one  family 
for  114  consecutive  years.  In  Pittsfield,  John  C.  West  declined 
re-election  in  1875,  having  been  a  member  of  the  board  of  select- 
men for  twenty-two  years,  and  its  chairman  for  nineteen.  As 
town  treasurer,  Josiah  Carter  served  from  1852  to  1883.  Gilbert 
West  was  habitually  chosen  by  the  voters  of  the  fire  district  to 
be  a  member  of  the  prudential  committee;  and,  beginning  in 
1864,  John  Feeley  and  William  R.  Plunkett  were  elected  water 
commissioners  continuously  until   1891. 

These  long  tenures  of  office  gave  to  a  town  experienced  ser- 
vice; but  the  tendency  which  they  encouraged  toward  the  more 
or  less  permanent  surrender  of  authority  was  at  curious  variance 
with  the  idea  of  popular  sovereignty  embodied  in  the  town 
meeting  system.  The  family  mentioned  by  Mr.  Fiske  can  be 
fancied  to  have  laid  claim  to  a  sort  of  vested  right  to  the  office 
of  town  clerk,  and  in  fact  such  a  claim  was  doubtless  often  opera- 
tive. 

The  theory  of  the  system  was  based  upon  the  presence  and 
actual  participation,  in  town  meeting,  of  the  entire  body  politic. 
But  Pittsfield  in  1876  had  more  than  two  thousand  voters. 
There  was  no  meeting  place  in  town  where  two  thousand  people 
could  be  sheltered.  The  town  hall  seated  fewer  than  five 
hundred.  Two  years  later,  Burbank's  Hall  on  West  Street  began 
to  be  the  customary  scene  of  the  annual  town  meeting;  in  1880, 
it  was  held  at  the  Academy  of  Music;  in  1889,  at  the  Coliseum 
on  North  Street,  which  was  capable  of  containing  about  half  the 
voters.  Nevertheless,  there  was  not  serious  complaint  at  any 
time  that  these  halls  were  overcrowded.  For  the  numerous 
special  meetings,  where  business  of  much  importance  might  be 
transacted,  the  town  hall  seems  always  to  have  been  large 
enough.  One  special  meeting  of  the  fire  district,  duly  adver- 
tised by  warrant,  was  called  to  order  at  the  appointed  hour,  with 
six  voters  present.  An  indistinct  idea  having  been  advanced 
that  seven  were  required  for  a  quorum,  another  citizen  was  en- 
ticed into  the  town  hall  from  a  bench  in  the  Park,  and  an  ex- 
pensive sewer  was  then  authorized.  About  fifty  men  attended 
the  adjourned  town  meeting  of  1868;    a  motion  was  carried  to 


TOWN  GOVERNMENT,  1876-1891  35 

reconsider  certain  decisions  of  the  previous  day  regarding  the 
public  schools;  six  members  were  added  to  the  school  committee 
of  three;  and  the  employment  of  a  superintendent  was  voted, 
for  the  first  time. 

It  can  readily  be  imagined  that  injustice  might  be  wrought 
when  proceedings  like  those  were  possible.  Especially  of  late 
years,  the  experience  of  New  England  towns  shows  that  the 
town  meeting  system  is  not  a  talisman  against  corruption  and 
inefficiency.  Given  absentee  wealth,  or  a  deteriorated  electorate, 
and  the  town  meeting  system  may  foster  in  a  rural  village  as 
vicious  and  wasteful  a  political  ring  as  ever  burdened  a  great 
city.  Without  accepting  completely  the  bold  dictum  of  Alexan- 
der Pope  that  the  best  form  of  government  is  that  which  is  best 
administered,  it  is  demonstrable  that  the  good  results  of  the 
tov/n  meeting  system  in  Pittsfield  were  exactly  what  the  voters 
caused  them  to  be;  and  that  whatever  degree  resulted  of  equi- 
table and  economical  administration  of  public  affairs  is  to  be  at- 
tributed not  to  the  form  of  government,  but  to  the  quality  of 
citizenship. 

As  early  as  1879,  Pittsfield  was  the  largest  town,  properly 
so-called,  in  the  United  States,  and  perhaps  nov/here  else  in  the 
country  did  the  affections  of  the  people  cherish  so  fondly  the 
democratic  town  meeting  and  school  district  systems.  School 
districts  were  abolished,  much  against  the  will  of  a  majority 
of  Pittsfield's  voters,  by  the  General  Court  in  1869.  Six  years 
later,  the  legislature  offered  a  city  charter  to  the  town.  The 
town  did  not  take  the  trouble  to  vote  upon  it,  and  the  charter 
was  allowed  to  expire.  The  Pittsfield  of  1876  was  in  no  mood 
to  experiment  with  municipal  finances.  Times  were  hard,  and 
already  the  town  considered  itself  heavily  in  debt. 

At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  the  town  indebtedness  of  Pitts- 
field was  about  $85,000.  During  the  next  three  years,  a  period 
of  marked  local  prosperity,  this  indebtedness  was  greatly  re- 
duced; but  in  1868  began  a  series  of  extraordinary  expenses  at- 
tendant upon  the  erection  of  the  county  buildings,  the  extension 
of  Fenn  Street  to  North,  the  establishment  of  the  Athenaeum, 
and  the  improvement  of  the  Park.  In  1876,  the  town  debt  was 
$180,000.     The  town's  valuation,   about  $8,000,000,   was   less 


30  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

than  that  of  the  year  before,  and  decreased  annually  until  1881. 
The  ordinary  annual  expenses,  for  which  appropriations  were 
made  at  the  town  meeting,  were  for  several  years  in  the  close 
neighborhood  of  $90,000,  while  the  average  tax  rate,  including 
that  of  the  fire  district,  was  about  $16  for  every  thousand. 

The  joint  salary  of  the  board  of  three  selectmen  was  cus- 
tomarily fixed  at  $1,000.  The  board  was  the  executive  head  of 
the  town  government;  and  in  addition  was  charged  specifically 
with  the  supervision  of  highways  and  bridges;  the  care  of  the 
poor,  in  and  out  of  the  almshouse;  the  drawing  of  jurors;  and 
the  maintenance  of  order,  by  means  of  a  police  force.  The  office 
was  no  sinecure,  but  a  proposal  to  increase  the  membership  of  the 
board  was  defeated  more  than  once. 

John  C.  Parker,  S.  N.  Russell  and  A.  E.  Goodrich,  serving  as 
selectmen  in  1876,  were  succeeded  in  1881  by  Thomas  A.  Oman, 
F.  E.  Kernochan,  and  John  E.  Merrill.  Messrs.  Oman  and 
Kernochan  were  re-elected  in  1882,  and  Mr.  Merrill's  place  on 
the  board  was  taken  by  George  Y.  Learned.  In  1883,  the  town 
meeting  chose  F.  E.  Kernochan,  Dr.  William  M.  Mercer,  and 
Franklin  F.  Read;  in  1884,  Thomas  A.  Oman,  Laforest  Logan, 
and  DeWitt  C.  Munyan;  in  1885  and  1886,  DeWitt  C.  Munyan, 
William  W.  Whiting,  and  Edward  N.  Robbins;  in  1887,  Henry 
J.  Jones,  William  W.  Whiting,  and  Hezekiah  S.  Russell;  in  1888, 
Henry  J.  Jones,  Hezekiah  S.  Russell  and  George  Y.  Learned; 
in  1889  and  1890,  George  Y.  Learned,  W.  F.  Harrington,  and 
Eugene  H.  Robbins.  The  town  clerk  in  1876  was  Theodore  L. 
Allen.  James  Wilson  was  chosen  to  that  office  in  1877,  and 
was  annually  re-elected  until  1881,  when  he  was  followed  by 
John  F.  Van  Deusen,  who  served  until  1886.  Frederick  H. 
Printiss  was  clerk  during  the  remainder  of  the  existence  of  the 
town  government.  Succeeding  Josiah  Carter,  the  town  treasurer 
for  thirty  years,  Erwin  H.  Kennedy  was  elected  treasurer  in 
1883  and  served  until  the  installation  of  the  city  government  in 
1891. 

The  town  was  divided  into  seventeen  highway  districts,  for 
each  of  which  a  different  "surveyor"  was  responsible.  The 
seventeen  surveyors  disbursed  their  allowances  of  the  highway 
appropriation  practically  at  their  discretion.     This  arrangement, 


TOWN  GOVERNMENT,  1876-1891  37 

obviously  injudicious,  was  productive  more  often  of  accusations 
of  jobbery,  and  even  of  fraud,  than  of  good  roads.  At  the  town 
meeting  of  1879,  the  selectmen,  in  accordance  with  a  recent  act 
of  the  legislature,  were  elected  road  commissioners;  and  the 
highways  came  nominally  under  their  sole  superintendence,  in 
spite  of  persistent  disapproval  by  many  voters.  Centralized 
superintendence  in  public  concerns  of  any  sort  was  viewed  in 
New  England,  and  especially  then  in  Pittsfield,  with  a  jealous 
eye. 

The  condition  of  the  highways  was  a  perennial  thorn  in  the 
flesh  of  the  selectmen.  Their  annual  report  of  1886  frankly  con- 
fessed that  "in  the  spring  and  fall  months,  the  roads  were  almost 
impassable  for  heavy  teams."  Every  winter  the  town  paid  for 
repairs  to  sleighs  broken  in  dive-holes  in  the  streets,  and  un- 
happy passengers  by  stage  to  Lanesborough  were  sometimes 
tossed  about  for  three  hours  before  reaching  their  destination. 
Complaints  were  constant,  and  the  Eagle  once  went  to  the  length 
of  declaring  that  travel  by  road  in  April  was  "well-nigh  impos- 
sible". The  first  example  of  roadmaking  according  to  modern 
standards  was  the  road  to  Dalton  from  Tyler  Street,  built  in 
1888. 

Crushed  stone  was  not  used  on  the  streets  before  1884.  Its 
value  then  was  so  apparent  that,  two  years  later,  the  town  voted 
to  buy  a  stone-crusher,  and  to  begin  what  the  selectmen,  with  a 
somewhat  pathetic  hopefulness,  called  the  "permanent"  im- 
provement of  North  Street.  The  surface  of  the  street,  however, 
was  coy  of  permanence  in  this  respect;  and  unfeeling  critics 
remarked  that  in  order  to  find  in  the  spring  permanent  improve- 
ments, which  had  been  made  during  the  previous  summer,  it  was 
necessary  to  dig  for  them.  In  1889  the  selectmen's  report  as- 
serted that  the  only  way  to  secure  satisfactory  conditions  on  the 
125  miles  of  roads  and  streets  was  to  employ  one  superintendent 
for  the  entire  system;  and  this  was  done,  with  good  results. 

Street  drainage  for  the  disposal  of  surface  water  was  not  a 
simple  matter,  because  of  the  relics  of  primeval  swamps  which 
still  survived  in  the  central  village;  and  the  town's  sewers  for 
this  purpose  were  always  a  perplexing  problem.  The  town 
meeting  was  tame  wherein  the  notorious  "bog  sewer",  running 


88  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

south  from  West  Street,  was  not  provocative  of  a  parliamentary 
skirmish.  In  1878,  twenty-five  of  the  town's  old  wooden  bridges 
had  already  been  replaced  by  substantial  structures  of  iron,  six 
having  been  built  in  that  year.  The  tornado  of  1879  compelled 
the  immediate  construction  of  several  others,  and  the  town  was 
never  backward  in  meeting  a  reasonable  demand  for  those  con- 
veniences. 

In  spending  the  taxpayers'  money  for  the  relief  of  the  poor, 
outside  of  the  almshouse,  the  selectmen  were  almost  unrestricted. 
The  system  was  readily  susceptible  to  abuse.  As  a  charitable 
method  it  was  probably  demoralizing,  and  it  was  clearly  in 
danger  of  misemployment  for  political  purposes.  To  confide 
to  elective  officers  the  irresponsible  distribution  of  so  large  and 
elastic  a  public  fund  among  the  electorate  seems  pregnant  with 
mischief.  In  respect  of  no  other  oflBcial  function  is  it  more  ap- 
parent that  the  success  of  the  New  England  town  government 
must  depend  largely  upon  the  character  of  those  who  administer 
it.  The  selectmen  of  Pittsfield  chose  one  of  their  number  to  be 
the  sole  agent  of  public  charity.  To  him  the  destitute  came  for 
relief;  he  investigated  their  plight;  bought  and  distributed  sup- 
plies; found  them  employment,  when  he  could;  and  was,  with 
literal  exactness,  a  town  father.  During  periods  of  distress,  like 
that  between  1873  and  1879,  his  duty  demanded  especial  dis- 
cretion, wisdom,  and  human  sympathy. 

After  the  formation  of  the  Union  for  Home  Work,  the  town, 
for  a  few  years,  made  that  useful  organization  its  official  almoner; 
and  afterward  the  selectmen  were  authorized  to  employ  an 
agent,  who  superintended  the  town's  treatment  of  its  poor. 

The  voters  elected  two  constables,  and  the  selectmen  were 
authorized,  if  they  chose,  to  appoint  in  addition  a  police  force 
for  the  preservation  of  public  order.  John  M.  Hatch  was  one 
of  the  constables  elected  in  1875.  He  was  an  active,  resolute 
man,  who  had  spent  a  portion  of  his  youth  on  the  western  fron- 
tier; and  as  captain  of  "the  night  watch"  he  introduced  vigor- 
ous methods,  surprising  to  those  who  had  been  accustomed  to 
the  obese  tranquilities  of  George  Hayes,  the  other  constable. 
Hatch  failed  of  re-election  in  1876,  and  the  selectmen,  promptly 
utilizing  their  prerogative,  appointed  him  chief  of  police,  to  the 


TOWN  GOVERNMENT,  1876-1891  39 

discomfiture  of  the  element  which  had  defeated  him  at  the  polls. 
The  first  formal  report  of  a  chief  of  Pittsfield  police  was  submit- 
ted by  John  M.  Hatch  in  1877.  Under  the  town  government, 
the  force  increased  from  seven  men  in  1876  to  fourteen  in  1890, 
and  was  never  otherwise  than  creditable  to  the  selectmen  who 
appointed  and  controlled  it. 

A  board  of  health,  after  1869,  was  regularly  chosen  by  the 
town.  The  recommendations  of  the  board  were  alert,  sagacious, 
trenchantly  expressed,  and  extremely  unpopular.  During  the 
final  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century,  in  New  England,  the 
value  of  public  sanitation  was  feebly  apprehended,  and  any  in- 
trusion upon  the  domestic  economy  of  a  household  was  resented 
with  honest  wrath.  Efforts  of  the  earlier  boards  of  health  were 
intelligent  and  faithful;  but  they  were  empowered  imperfectly 
both  by  statute  and  by  public  sentiment,  and  fortunately  they 
never  in  Pittsfield  could  speak  with  the  tragic  emphasis  which 
might  have  resulted  from  the  scourge  of  an  epidemic  of  disease. 
The  health  of  the  community  was  excellent. 

The  town  meeting  voters  elected  a  school  committee,  and 
minutely  discussed  all  phases  of  its  administration  of  school  af- 
fairs, from  the  selection  of  books  to  the  ventilation  of  rooms. 
When  a  new  schoolhouse  was  to  be  built,  its  erection  was  placed 
in  the  hands  of  a  special  committee,  responsible  only  to  the  town. 
Pittsfield  had  unwiUingly  discarded  in  1869  its  old  school  district 
system,  with  its  thirteen  separate  little  republics;  and  for  many 
years  there  was  observable  here  the  same  hostile  suspicion  of 
centralized  authority  which  existed  in  the  case  of  the  manage- 
ment of  the  highways.  Whether  for  good  or  evil,  this  suspicion 
did  not  make  for  stability  in  the  conduct  of  the  common  schools; 
but  another  chapter  will  show  how  a  few  wise  and  determined 
men  were  finally  able  so  to  use  the  town  meeting  system  as  to 
obtain  public  schools  for  the  town  of  Pittsfield  as  efficient  as 
the  average  of  those  in  Western  Massachusetts. 

Partly  for  the  use  of  its  public  schools,  the  town  was  once 
offered  an  extraordinary  endowment.  Abraham  Burbank  died 
in  1887.  He  was  a  remarkable  man  and  left  a  remarkable  will. 
In  this,  after  providing  for  the  support  of  his  widow,  children, 
and  grandchildren,  he  made  further  devises  by  which  he  intended 


40  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

that  the  bulk  of  his  estate,  inventoried  at  about  $350,000, 
should  vest  in  the  town  of  Pittsfield.  The  town,  however,  took 
no  direct  beneficial  interest  in  the  estate  devised;  if  it  accepted 
the  devise,  it  must  hold  the  estate  in  trust  for  certain  charitable 
purposes  expressed  in  the  will.  These  were  the  creation  of  a 
permanent  fund  for  the  use  of  the  common  schools,  the  erection 
and  maintenance  of  a  free  hospital,  and  the  establishment  of  a 
public  park,  all  three  of  which  were  to  bear  the  testator's  name. 

Difficulties  were  seen  at  once  in  the  way  of  the  town's  under- 
taking the  complicated  management  of  a  large  private  estate, 
for  a  period  perhaps  of  fifty  or  seventy-five  years.  It  was  point- 
ed out  that  the  town,  in  its  corporate  capacity,  would  be  obliged 
not  only  to  act  as  the  responsible  landlord  of  several  North 
Street  blocks,  whose  structural  qualities  were  not  auspicious, 
but  also  to  conduct  a  hotel.  Furthermore,  the  will  provided 
that  "the  Burbank  Hotel  shall  be  kept  as  a  hotel  forever,  and 
if  it  is  destroyed  by  fire,  or  otherwise,  it  shall  be  rebuilt  in  a  good, 
substantial  manner."  Grave  doubts,  too,  existed  as  to  the  legal 
construction  of  many  of  the  testamentary  clauses,  and,  indeed, 
as  to  the  validity  of  the  will  itself. 

Nevertheless,  a  due  respect  for  Mr.  Burbank's  memory 
prompted  the  town  to  take  measures  to  respect  his  charitable 
intentions.  A  committee  was  appointed  to  confer  with  the 
heirs  on  the  subject  of  a  compromise.  Three  compromise  pro- 
posals accordingly  were  oftered  jointly  by  the  committee  and 
the  heirs  to  a  special  town  meeting;  and  the  voters  accepted 
one  which,  releasing  all  the  interests  of  the  town  under  the  will, 
immediately  awarded  from  the  estate  $8,000  to  the  House  of 
Mercy,  $2,000  to  the  Berkshire  County  Home  for  Aged  Women, 
and  a  broad  tract  of  land  on  the  shore  of  Onota  Lake  to  the  town, 
to  be  used  for  a  park.  On  June  second,  1890,  this  adjustment 
was  confirmed  by  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court. 

Theoretically,  every  voter  was  an  active  and  constant  auditor 
of  the  accounts  of  the  town's  finances.  In  practice,  the  voters 
were  content  annually  to  choose  a  committee  "to  settle  with 
the  town  treasurer";  and  the  sole  results  of  the  committee's 
labors  were  half  a  dozen  lines  in  the  treasurer's  yearly  report, 
commending  the  financial  administration.     The  mechanical  re- 


TOWN  GOVERNMENT,  1876-1891  41 

currence  of  this  compliment  had  probably  a  certain  hynoptic  ef- 
fect, upon  the  voters  as  well  as  upon  the  treasurer  and  upon  each 
succeeding  committee  of  audit.  In  1878,  however,  the  members 
of  the  committee  "respectfully  recommend  that  the  Collector 
and  Treasurer  be  instructed  to  keep  the  accounts  of  the  town 
entirely  distinct  and  separate  from  those  of  the  fire  district". 
It  does  not  appear  that  the  recommendation  was  regarded  as 
mandatory. 

A  special  committee  in  1879  was  appointed  to  investigate 
and  report  on  the  debt  of  the  town.  The  committee  was  of  un- 
usual ability,  being  composed  of  Henry  W.  Taft,  James  M. 
Barker,  and  Marshall  Wilcox,  and  their  report,  as  might  have 
been  expected,  was  exhaustive,  lucid,  and  cogent.  It  resulted  in 
the  establishment  of  a  sinking  fund  for  the  purpose  of  extinguish- 
ing the  town  debt.  But  even  this  skilled  and  conscientious  com- 
mittee was  forced  to  acknowledge  that  it  could  not  "exactly  as- 
certain" the  state  of  the  town's  indebtedness;  and  the  report 
goes  on  to  say  that  "it  has  not  been  the  custom  of  the  Treasurer 
to  keep  a  list  of  the  notes  or  other  obligations  of  the  town,  nor 
have  the  Boards  of  Selectmen  been  in  the  habit  of  making  any 
record  of  the  loans  made  for  the  town." 

This  was  in  1880.  The  explosion  did  not  occur  until  1886. 
Then  the  town  was  amazed  to  discover,  almost  by  accident,  that 
during  the  service  of  a  veteran  treasurer,  who  had  held  office 
from  1852  to  1883,  a  portion  of  his  accounts  had  been  in  a  condi- 
tion resembling  chaos.  No  stain  whatever  was  found  on  his 
personal  integrity.  Keen-eyed  experts  disagreed  in  an  attempt 
to  tell  the  voters  how  much  money  the  former  treasurer  owed 
the  town  and  how  much  the  town  owed  him.  At  length,  a  town 
meeting  voted  to  drop  the  entire  matter.  The  truth  seems  to  be 
that  the  financial  machinery  of  Pittsfield's  town  government,  con- 
sidered as  a  thing  apart  from  those  who  manned  it,  was  loosely 
jointed. 

It  has  been  intimated  that  the  confusion  of  accounts  was  due 
partly  to  the  existence  within  the  town  government  of  the  fire 
district  government.  In  theory,  each  was  distinct  and  inde- 
pendent, but  practically  there  was  a  conflict  of  jurisdiction. 
The  town,  for  instance,  had  control  by  statute  over  the  streets, 


42  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

but  not  over  the  sidewalks,  which  were  controlled  by  the  fire 
district.  The  district's  commissioner  might  fix  a  grade  and 
build  a  sidewalk,  whereupon  the  town's  highway  surveyor  might 
order  the  street  lowered,  and  thus  leave  the  sidewalk  futilely 
aloft,  and  discomfit  also  the  district's  water  commissioner,  who 
had  fondly  believed  that  his  mains  were  safely  below  the  reach 
of  frost,  and  the  district's  commissioner  of  sewers,  who  might 
find  his  pipes  unexpectedly  ornamenting  the  surface  of  the  em- 
barrassed thoroughfare. 

The  fire  district  was  an  area  of  about  four  square  miles,  with 
the  Park  nearly  in  the  center.  Its  boundaries  were  extremely 
erratic,  running  here  through  open  farm  land,  and  there  along  a 
village  street,  so  that  a  householder  on  one  side  of  the  way 
might  be  assessed  for  fire  district  improvements,  while  his 
neighbor  on  the  other  side  might  enjoy  the  same  residential  ad- 
vantages and  fail  to  find  the  price  thereof  in  his  tax  bill.  The 
affairs  of  the  district,  which  had  been  incorporated  by  the  legis- 
lature in  1844,  were  administered  according  to  the  town  meeting 
principle,  and  an  open  assembly  of  all  of  its  voters  decided  every 
question  of  policy  or  method.  It  was  empowered  to  maintain 
waterworks,  a  fire  department,  street  lights,  sewers  and  drains, 
and  sidewalks;  and  for  these  purposes  it  made  appropriations 
and  taxed  itself.  It  elected  its  own  appropriate  commissioners 
and  committees,  and  a  chief  engineer,  with  his  three  assistants, 
for  the  fire  department;  the  clerk,  collector,  and  treasurer  who 
served  the  town,  served  the  district  likewise. 

In  the  present  general  consideration  of  public  affairs  undef 
the  town  government,  it  seems  to  be  necessary  to  observe  of  the 
volunteer  fire  department  only  that  the  "firemen's  vote"  could 
have  been  made  a  political  factor  of  importance.  175  members 
were  carried  on  the  rolls  of  the  four  volunteer  companies  in  1876. 
They  were  energetic,  representative  men,  and  the  headquarters 
of  each  company  served  every  purpose  of  permanent  clubrooms. 
That  they  did  not  become  subject  to  unworthy  political  control 
was  due  to  their  vigorous,  if  sometimes  turbulent,  democracy, 
and  to  the  healthy  rivalries  among  the  independent  organizations. 

The  water  supply,  obtained  by  the  district  from  Ashley  Lake 
in  1855  at  an  initial  expense  of  about  $50,000,  had  not  been  in- 


TOWN  GOVERNMENT,  1876-1891  43 

creased  until  1876,  when  the  Sackett  Brook  extension  was  finish- 
ed. A  few  years  later,  the  commissioners  doubled  the  capacity 
of  Ashley  Lake  by  raising  the  dam;  and  in  1883  they  announced 
that  the  original  waterworks  had  been  practically  reconstructed, 
and  that  "the  district  has  its  waterworks  without  having  con- 
tributed to  their  construction  or  maintenance  in  any  other  way 
than  by  the  payment  of  reasonable  rates,  for  which  an  equivalent 
return  is  made  to  each  contributor."  This  condition  of  things 
testifies  to  good  management,  especially  in  light  of  the  fact  that 
the  original  piping  was  so  faulty  that  over  one  hundred  leaks,  on 
account  of  frost,  had  been  known  to  damage  the  mains  during  a 
single  winter.  The  policy  of  the  commissioners  was  to  make 
yearly  improvements,  and  to  keep  pace  with  the  growth  of  the 
town  without  burdening  the  district  by  a  debt  and  interest 
charge  larger  than  the  immediate  future  required.  There  was 
frequently  almost  an  entire  failure  of  pressure  on  Jubilee  Hill; 
but  in  1889  this  deficiency  was  remedied  by  the  laying  of  a  new 
sixteen-inch  main  to  the  reservoir,  and  when  the  fire  district 
turned  over  the  waterworks  to  the  city  in  1891,  they  were  com- 
mendably  adequate.  The  construction  account  was  then  about 
$200,000,  and  the  yearly  rates  paid  $12,000  on  the  principal  of 
the  debt,  after  providing  for  interest  and  cost  of  maintenance. 

The  fire  district,  however,  was  never  able  to  equip  itself  with 
a  completely  efficient  system  of  sewers.  In  1876,  public  sewers 
were  provided  by  the  district  in  only  a  few  of  the  streets,  and  an 
annual  appropriation  of  $100  sufficed  to  cleanse  and  repair  them. 
The  chronic  and  righteous  indignation  of  the  town's  board  of 
health  over  such  a  lamentable  state  of  affairs  had  little  effect 
upon  the  voters  of  the  district.  In  this  matter  the  conflict  of 
jurisdiction  between  town  and  district  was  peculiarly  vexatious. 
The  fire  district  voted  in  1884  that  a  committee  be  appointed 
"to  consult  with  a  committee  of  the  town  to  see  what  the  duties 
of  the  town  and  fire  district  are,  relative  to  drains  for  surface 
water,  and  that  the  committee  also  be  asked  to  examine  into 
the  rights  of  the  town  in  the  sewers  now  existing."  Nothing 
seems  to  have  come  of  this.  The  district  was  not  spurred  to 
thorough  action  until  the  closing  years  of  its  existence,  when  its 
committee,  in  co-operation  with  a  committee  of  the  town,  em_ 


44  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

ployed  an  engineer  to  make  comprehensive  plans  for  a  system 
of  sewers;  but  the  final  execution  of  these  plans  was  accomplished 
under  a  city  form  of  government. 

Most  of  Pittsfield's  street  lamps  in  1876  had  been  furnished 
by  private  subscription.  They  were  lighted  by  gas  at  an  annual 
expense  to  the  fire  district  of  $25  each.  In  1883  electric  lighting 
was  first  seen  on  the  streets,  and  in  1887  the  fire  district  main- 
tained thirty  electric  street  lamps,  and  seventy-four  for  which 
gas  was  used.  The  expenditure  by  the  district  of  money  for 
street  lighting  was  never  very  popular.  The  lamps  were  lighted 
only  on  moonless  nights  and  were  extinguished  at  midnight; 
and,  at  the  fire  district  meeting  of  1876,  a  proposal  to  substitute 
kerosene  for  gas,  in  the  interests  of  economy,  found  well-inten- 
tioned support. 

The  construction  of  sidewalks  by  the  commissioners,  chosen 
for  that  purpose  by  the  district,  was  also  greatly  hindered  by  the 
conflict  of  jurisdiction  over  the  streets,  w^hich  existed  between  the 
fire  district  and  the  town.  In  1881,  the  commissioners  declared 
emphatically  that  "some  understanding  or  agreement  ought  to 
be  made  between  the  town  and  the  district  in  regard  to  their 
relative  rights  and  obligations"  in  this  matter;  and  they  com- 
plained that  it  was  useless  to  build  sidewalks  only  to  see  them 
destroyed  by  imperfect  drainage  of  surface  water,  a  defect  that 
the  district  was  powerless  to  remedy,  since  the  streets  were  in 
the  province  of  the  town.  Except  on  portions  of  North  and  West 
Streets  and  on  Park  Square,  the  sidewalks  were  made  usually  of 
gravel,  until  1887,  when  a  systematic  construction  of  concrete 
sidewalks  was  commenced  under  the  direction  of  Frank  W. 
Hinsdale.  During  the  first  year,  concrete  to  the  extent  of 
36,000  square  feet  was  laid  on  the  sidewalks  at  a  cost  of  $7,250; 
and  the  district  thereafter  prosecuted  the  work  with  diligence. 

This  instance,  albeit  in  a  matter  perhaps  of  minor  import- 
ance, is  illustrative  of  an  essential  advantage  of  the  town  meet- 
ing system,  as  revealed  by  a  survey  of  the  last  fifteen  years  of 
the  town  government  of  Pittsfield.  Any  citizen,  whether  in  or 
out  of  office,  had  his  fair  opportunity  of  impressing  any  plan  of 
public  betterment  directly  upon  the  voters.  If  his  scheme  was 
practicable,  if  he  was  a  man  of  force,  if  he  understood  his  fellow 


TOWN  GOVERNMENT,  1876-1891  45 

citizens,  and  if  they  understood  him,  then  in  Pittsfield  he  seldom 
failed  to  be  of  benefit  to  his  town.  This  opportunity  tended  to 
attract  every  type  of  citizenship  to  the  service  of  the  community. 
It  tended  to  make  every  man,  in  a  sense,  public-spirited,  and  to 
make  him  attentive  to  the  counsels  of  wisdom  and  experience, 
which  a  Pittsfield  town  meeting  usually  enjoyed. 

As  a  consequence,  the  record  of  this  final  decade-and-a-half  of 
the  town  abounds  in  examples  of  unselfish,  earnest,  patient  de- 
votion to  the  local  welfare,  and  under  the  influence  of  these  ex- 
amples something  like  a  habit  of  public  service  was  implanted 
among  the  Pittsfield  men  of  those  days.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
any  ofiicer  of  town  or  fire  district  was  adequately  remunerated; 
it  is  certain  that  for  many  important  and  laborious  duties  the 
town  readily  obtained  the  best  of  skilled  service  from  its  citizens 
without  any  remuneration  whatever.  Cumbersome  and  inexact 
the  machinery  of  Pittsfield's  town  government  may  have  been; 
but  nevertheless,  when  the  town  expired  in  1891,  the  newborn 
city  fell  heir  not  only  to  a  solvent  municipality,  but  also  to  a 
patriotic,  hardy,  and  self-reliant  civic  consciousness. 


CHAPTER  IV 
A  GROUP  OF  TOWNSMEN 

THE  design  of  this  chapter  is  to  present  sketches  of  some 
Pittsfield  men  whose  Hves  ended  during  the  final  fifteen 
years  of  the  existence  of  the  town  government,  that  is  to 
say,  between  1876  and  1891,  while  of  other  prominent  and  helpful 
townsmen,  who  died  during  the  same  period,  biographical  men- 
tion shall  hereafter  be  made  in  the  treatment  of  particular  topics. 

The  most  distinguished  citizen  of  Pittsfield  in  1876  was  Wil- 
liam Francis  Bartlett,  for  he  had  then  recently  become  a  figure  of 
national  significance  because  of  his  eloquent,  simple,  Lincoln-like 
pleas  for  reconciliation  between  the  North  and  the  South.  In 
the  thirty-fifth  year  of  his  age,  he  declined  offers  from  leaders 
both  of  the  Republican  and  of  the  Democratic  parties  to  place 
him  in  nomination  for  election  as  governor  or  lieutenant  governor 
of  the  Commonwealth;  and  when  he  was  thirty-six,  he  died  at 
Pittsfield,  which  had  been  his  home  for  most  of  the  final  ten 
years  of  his  life. 

He  was  born  at  Haverhill,  Massachusetts,  on  June  sixth,  1840, 
and  was  the  son  of  Charles  L.  Bartlett.  In  1861,  he  was  a 
junior  at  Harvard  College;  in  1865,  he  was  a  brigadier  general  of 
volunteers  in  the  Civil  War,  commanding  a  division  of  the  Ninth 
Army  Corps;  and  before  his  twenty-fifth  birthday  he  was  com- 
missioned a  major  general  by  brevet.  Four  times  he  was 
wounded;  during  the  early  part  of  his  service  he  was  maimed  by 
the  amputation  of  a  leg;  in  1864  he  was  captured  and  held  in 
the  Libby  prison,  where  he  contracted  a  cruel  disease,  which 
finally  caused  his  death;  nevertheless,  the  close  of  the  war  found 
him  ready  for  duty.  In  1862  he  had  come  to  Pittsfield  to  drill 
the  Forty-ninth  Massachusetts,  a  Berkshire  regiment,  with 
which  he  served  for  several  months  as  colonel,  and  in  1865  he  was 
married  to  Miss  Mary  Agnes  Pomeroy,  daughter  of  Robert  Pom- 


A  GROUP  OF  TOWNSMEN  47 

eroy  of  Pittsfield.  General  Bartlett  lived  for  a  time  in  Dal  ton 
and  in  Pittsfield  on  East  Street;  in  1870  he  built  the  house  on 
Wendell  Avenue,  now  numbered  thirty-one,  where  he  died, 
December  seventeenth,  1876. 

It  was  while  he  was  a  resident  of  Pittsfield  that  the  complete 
heroism  of  his  character  was  revealed  to  the  nation.  The  ani- 
mosity toward  the  defeated  and  prostrate  South,  which  was 
fostered  by  some  politicians  of  that  ignoble  period  of  reconstruc- 
tion, was  abhorrent  to  his  purer  patriotism,  nor  was  it  in  his 
chivalrous  soul  to  distrust  brave  men  who  had  honestly  laid 
down  their  arms.  Public  expression  of  sentiments  like  his  was 
not  then  common.  When  he  gave  them  utterance  at  the  Har- 
vard commencement  in  1874,  he  stirred  the  country  with  extra- 
ordinary force.  "I  firmly  believe",  said  he,  "that  when  the  gal- 
lant men  of  Lee's  army  surrendered  at  Appomattox  .... 
they  followed  the  example  of  their  heroic  chief,  and  with  their 
arms,  laid  down  forever  their  disloyalty  to  the  Union.  Take 
care,  then,  lest  you  repel  by  injustice,  or  suspicion,  or  even  by  in- 
difference, the  love  of  men  who  now  speak  with  pride  of  that  flag 
as  'our  flag'  ". 

It  is  difficult  to  appreciate  the  electrical  effect  of  a  speech  like 
that  only  ten  years  after  the  great  war.     Let  an  auditor  testify. 
General  Bartlett's  biographer,   F.   W.   Palfrey,   thus  describes 
the  scene:    "When  Bartlett  arose,  and  the  first  words  uttered 
by  his  deep  and  manly  voice  were  heard,  and  the  audience  be- 
came aware  that  they  came  from  the  shattered  soldier  whose  tall 
and  slender  form  and  wasted  face  they  had  seen  at  the  head  of 
the  procession  as  he  painfully  marshalled  it  that  day,  a  great 
silence  fell  on  the  multitude.     ......     All  felt  that  an 

event  had  taken  place". 

An  event  had  taken  place,  indeed.  As  it  had  been  given  to 
Bartlett  to  embody  the  perfect  chivalry  of  war,  so  it  was  given 
to  him  to  embody  the  perfect  chivalry  of  peace. 

The  next  year,  he  was  asked  to  participate  in  the  observance 
of  the  centennial  anniversary  of  the  fight  at  Lexington.  There 
he  spoke  in  the  presence  of  President  Grant  and  many  digni- 
taries; and  there,  with  the  shadow  of  death  visible  on  his  coun- 
tenance, he  made  another  plea  for  his  former  enemies.     "Men 


48  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

cannot",  he  said,  "always  choose  the  right  cause;  but  when,  hav- 
ing chosen  that  which  conscience  dictates,  they  are  ready  to  die 
for  it,  if  they  justify  not  their  cause,  they  at  least  ennoble  them- 
selves". 

In  the  North,  men  began  to  turn  to  Bartlett  as  a  representa- 
tive of  their  ideal  of  reconciliation.  In  the  South,  among  the 
people  against  whom  he  had  fought,  he  became  a  popular  idol. 
Shortly  after  his  Lexington  speech,  General  Bartlett  went  to 
Richmond,  where  he  had  business  interests.  The  Virginian  vet- 
erans of  Lee's  army  met  him  at  the  railroad  station,  unhooked 
the  horses  from  his  carriage,  and  drew  it  themselves  through  the 
streets.  There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that,  had  his  days  been 
prolonged,  the  nation  would  have  honored  him  with  high  office. 

Whenever  his  enfeebled  strength  permitted,  he  was  always 
ready  to  serve  the  town  of  his  adoption;  and  he  was  prominent 
in  the  Pittsfield  Young  Men's  Association,  a  warden  of  St. 
Stephen's  Church,  a  member  of  the  original  board  of  trustees  of 
the  Berkshire  Athenaeum,  and  of  the  committee  which  super- 
vised the  erection  of  the  Soldiers'  Monument.  General  Bart- 
lett's  influence  upon  the  community  life  of  Pittsfield  was  none 
the  less  powerful  because  it  was  gentle  and  unobtrusive.  He 
bore  himself  so  modestly  that  not  all  of  his  neighbors  quite 
realized  his  greatness,  nor  could  the  village  then  perceive  that  his 
agency  for  good,  so  far  as  it  affected  Pittsfield,  was  more  potent 
than  that  of  many  other  valued  citizens.  It  is  apparent,  how- 
ever, that  few  men  so  strongly  uplifted  the  character  of  the  town. 
As  they  grew  older,  the  Pittsfield  men  of  his  generation  cherished 
with  increasing  gratitude  the  memories  of  his  quiet  courage  in 
physical  distress  and  adverse  fortune,  his  sweet  and  simple 
Christianity,  and  his  flawless,  clear-sighted,  and  intrepid  pa- 
triotism; and  in  the  city  today  the  inspiration  of  his  life  is  still  a 
beneficent  and  active  force. 

In  person  he  was  singularly  handsome,  commanding,  and, 
as  in  speech  and  demeanor,  knightly.  His  grave  is  in  the  Pitts- 
field cemetery.  The  Commonwealth  has  placed  a  bronze 
statue  of  him  in  the  State  House;  and  the  occasion  of  its  unveil- 
ing in  1904  was  graced  by  the  delivery  of  an  oration  of  truth  and 
beauty  by  Morris  Schaff,  General  Bartlett's  fellow  townsman  in 


A  GROUP  OF  TOWNSMEN  49 

Pittsfield.  Of  the  statue,  a  noble  work  by  Daniel  Chester 
French,  a  replica  was  presented  to  Berkshire  County  by  the 
sculptor.  This  now  stands  in  the  armory  on  Summer  Street. 
The  city  in  1911  honored  one  of  its  public  schools  by  giving  to  it 
General  Bartlett's  name. 

The  public  schools  of  the  town  lost  an  enthusiastic  and  help- 
ful friend  in  1876,  when,  on  September  twenty-ninth,  Charles  B. 
Redfield  died.  He  removed  his  residence  from  Albany  to  Pitts- 
field  about  1867,  purchasing  the  house  on  South  Street  which  had 
been  built  by  Dr.  Timothy  Childs,  opposite  the  medical  college. 
Mr.  Redfield  served  the  cause  of  free  education  in  Pittsfield  when 
it  was  sorely  in  need  of  supporters  so  enlightened  and  diligent. 
He  was  a  leader  of  the  committee  charged  with  the  ungrateful 
duty  of  initiating  the  town  system  of  schools  which  superseded 
the  district  school  system,  then  popularly  admired.  The  task, 
however,  was  congenial  to  his  progressive,  active  spirit  and  to  his 
cultivated  mind;  and  his  energetic  devotion  to  its  accomplish- 
ment was  productive  of  much  permanent  benefit  to  the  town. 

Thomas  Colt,  son  of  Ezekiel  R.  Colt,  was  born  at  Pittsfield, 
June  twenty-eighth,  1823,  and  there  died,  November  eighth,  1876. 
He  was  graduated  from  Williams  College  in  the  class  of  1842. 
In  1856  he  purchased  an  interest  in  the  paper  mill  in  the  eastern 
part  of  the  town,  on  the  site  of  the  present  Government  Mill,  and 
in  1862  became  its  sole  owner.  The  factory  village  there  was 
named  after  him,  Coltsville. 

Mr.  Colt  presided  at  town  meetings  more  frequently  than  did 
any  other  citizen  in  the  town's  history.  He  was  a  forceful, 
broad-minded,  scholarly  man,  ambitious  in  the  conduct  of  his 
personal  business,  and  at  the  same  time  ready  with  strong  sup- 
port for  worthy  community  causes.  The  excellent  Pittsfield 
Young  Men's  Association,  for  example,  was  in  large  measure 
financially  sustained  by  him  in  his  later  years.  In  affairs  of  local 
government,  his  leadership  was  dignified  and  respectful  of  the 
town,  which  he  greatly  loved.  Mr.  Colt  was  an  ardent  and  af- 
fectionate antiquarian,  and  the  movement  which  resulted  in  the 
preparation  and  publication  of  J.  E.  A.  Smith's  "History  of 
Pittsfield"  was  stimulated  and  directed  by  him. 

Justus  Merrill  linked  the  town  of  Pittsfield  impressively  with 


50  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

its  historic  past.  His  father,  Capt.  Hosea  Merrill,  was  a  Pitts- 
field  veteran  of  the  Revolution;  and  Mr.  Merrill  in  his  youth 
had  been  an  oflficial  at  the  military  cantonment  on  North  Street, 
near  the  present  Maplewood,  where  British  prisoners  were  held 
during  the  second  war  with  England.  Mr.  Merrill  was  born  in 
1792,  and  died  at  Pittsfield,  August  nineteenth,  1879.  Like  his 
father  before  him,  he  was  a  typical  Berkshire  farmer  of  the  old- 
fashioned,  conscientious  sort,  of  assistance  in  town  affairs  and 
cultivating  with  contentment  his  ancestral  acres  on  the  southern 
shores  of  Pontoosuc  Lake. 

The  death  of  George  W.  Campbell,  on  February  thirteenth, 
1880,  marked  the  passing  of  the  second  Pittsfield  generation  of 
the  men  of  a  family  to  whose  restless  effort  the  prosperity  of  the 
village  had  been  much  indebted.  Mr.  Campbell  was  born  in 
Pittsfield,  July  fourth,  1804.  His  father,  David  Campbell,  was 
the  landlord  of  a  tavern  on  Bank  Row.  In  that  center  of  town 
activities  Mr.  Campbell  spent  his  boyhood,  and  witnessed  the 
meetings  preparatory  to  the  establishment  of  the  early  textile 
factories  of  Pittsfield.  In  1825  the  Pontoosuc  Woolen  Manu- 
facturing Company  was  formed,  and  Mr.  Campbell  was  one  of  its 
promoters,  remaining  actively  connected  with  the  enterprise  un- 
til 1841.  From  1853  to  1861  he  was  president  of  the  Agricultural 
Bank.  He  was  a  friend  of  Horace  Greeley,  and  not  dissimilar  to  the 
great  editor  in  that  he  combined  a  certain  childlike  simplicity 
with  worldly  knowingness  and  quaint  idiosyncracies.  Possessing 
little  of  the  nervous,  eager  temperament  characteristic  of  his 
father  and  his  brothers,  he  stood  in  public  and  business  aft'airs 
for  a  conservatism  often  valuable  to  the  community. 

While  the  brilliant  career  of  James  D.  Colt  at  the  bar  and 
on  the  bench  ornamented  the  Commonwealth,  his  career  in  the 
public  and  social  life  of  the  town  of  Pittsfield  was  no  less  bright 
and  memorable.  James  Dennison  Colt,  son  of  Ezekiel  R.  Colt, 
was  born  in  Pittsfield,  October  eighth,  1819,  and  there  died, 
August  ninth,  1881.  He  was  graduated  in  1838  from  Williams; 
in  after  years  he  was  a  trustee  of  the  college,  and  a  president  of 
its  alumni  association.  Admitted  to  the  Berkshire  bar  in  1842, 
he  formed  a  partnership  with  Julius  Rockwell. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  law  firm  of  Rockwell  and  Colt, 


A  GROUP  OF  TOWNSMEN  51 

having  offices  on  the  lower  floor  of  Pittsfield's  town  hall,  ac- 
quired a  sort  of  institutional  importance  in  Western  Massachu- 
setts. A  position  on  the  bench  of  the  Superior  Court  was  offered 
in  1859  to  each  of  the  members  of  the  distinguished  partnership. 
Mr.  Rockwell  accepted,  but  Mr.  Colt  remained  in  the  practice 
of  an  advocate,  steadily  advancing  his  reputation  throughout  the 
state  as  a  learned,  adroit,  and  eloquent  trial  lawyer.  In  1865 
he  was  appointed  a  justice  of  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court.  Ill 
health  enforced  his  resignation  a  year  later.  In  1868,  however, 
he  was  able  to  accept  a  reappointment  to  the  bench  of  the  same 
high  tribunal,  which  he  continued  to  adorn  until  his  death.  He 
was  married  in  1857  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Gilbert  of  Gilbertsville, 
New  York. 

He  was,  in  the  words  of  Chief  Justice  Gray,  "the  most  popular 
of  judges",  although  his  spirit  was  inflammable,  readily  taking 
fire  at  opposition  or  difficulty.  Judge  Colt's  associates  on  the 
bench  appear  to  have  valued  him  especially  because  of  his  quick 
scorn  for  chicanery,  and  for  his  thorough  understanding  of 
questions  of  state  and  municipal  government.  To  the  writing  of 
the  opinions  of  the  court  he  habitually  devoted  an  unusual 
amount  of  thought  and  labor,  for  he  was  naturally  a  speaker 
rather  than  a  writer.  His  judicial  duties,  therefore,  were  pecul- 
iarly onerous. 

He  shouldered  the  burden  of  them  with  unsparing  fidelity; 
and  with  equal  fidelity  he  was  always  ready  to  concern  himself 
with  the  best  interests  of  his  native  town.  He  served  as  a  se- 
lectman, as  a  member  of  almost  countless  town  committees,  and 
as  a  representative  of  Pittsfield  in  the  state  legislature.  No  man 
could  more  effectually  inform  or  enliven  a  town  meeting.  Wise, 
humorous,  and  nimble-minded,  of  large  frame,  portly  aspect  and 
broad  features,  he  knew  well  how  to  sway  an  audience  of  Yankees. 
Once,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Pittsfield  fire  district,  it  was  moved  to 
appropriate  a  considerable  sum  of  money  to  install  a  telegraphic 
fire  alarm.  Numerous  speakers  supported  the  motion.  The 
ubiquitous  agent  of  the  fire  alarm  installation  company  was  in 
the  hall.  "This  man",  said  Judge  Colt,  pointing  at  him,  "this 
man  proposes  to  sit  for  years  in  the  First  Church  belfry,  like  a 
spider,  and  spin  his  great  web  of  wires  over  our  helpless  village, 


53  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

but  here  is  one  little  fly  who  doesn't  intend  to  be  caught".  The 
motion  was  uproariously  defeated. 

Upon  occasions  of  dignity,  his  addresses  were  marked  by  an 
eloquence  at  the  same  time  classical  and  nervous;  for  his  tem- 
perament was  sensitively  and  delicately  organized,  and  it  found 
no  right  expression  in  conventional  phrases. 

He  loved  to  meet  humankind  and  to  see  people  enjoy  them- 
selves. In  social  life  he  was  the  most  unjudgelike  of  men.  It 
is  related  of  him  that,  on  a  railroad  journey,  his  stories  and  his 
jovial  good  nature  would  often  keep  a  carfull  of  passengers  in 
hilarity  for  fifty  miles.  His  face,  his  voice,  and  his  wit  were 
known  nearly  as  well  in  Boston  as  in  Berkshire.  But  of  Judge 
Colt  it  is  to  be  observed,  as  it  is  of  many  Pittsfield  men  of  his 
generation,  that  he  reserved  his  best  for  the  village  of  his  birth 
and  for  the  community  wherein  he  had  grown  to  maturity. 
The  business  of  lawyer  and  jurist  often  carried  him  far  afield,  he 
was  a  favorite  in  distant  and  distinguished  circles  of  society,  but 
his  home  town  never  ceased  to  command  him;  nor  did  he  ever 
seem  to  lack  satisfaction  in  giving  to  it  the  full  value  of  his  public 
training,  his  legal  and  political  sagacity,  and  his  rare  talent  for 
the  amenities  of  social  intercourse. 

Among  the  Pittsfield  manufacturers  upon  whom  once  de- 
pended the  welfare  of  the  town,  the  foremost  for  a  number  of 
years  was  Theodore  Pomeroy,  who  was  born  in  Pittsfield,  Sep- 
tember second,  1813,  and  died  there,  September  twenty-sixth, 
1881.  After  the  death  of  his  father,  Lemuel  Pomeroy,  in  1849, 
he  assumed  the  management  of  the  prosperous  woolen  mills  of 
L.  Pomeroy's  Sons,  on  the  west  branch  of  the  Housatonic.  With 
him  as  co-heirs  of  this  property  were  two  younger  brothers,  Rob- 
ert and  Edward,  but  neither  of  them  had  much  liking  for  the  ex- 
acting daily  cares  of  a  manufacturer,  so  that  Theodore  by  their 
choice  carried  on  the  business.  Eventually  he  became  sole 
owner. 

A  strongly  intelligent  man,  Mr.  Pomeroy  mastered  his  voca- 
tion with  the  thoroughness  of  an  earnest  student  of  law  or  medi- 
cine, and  to  his  theoretical  knowledge  he  united  sound  commer- 
cial sense.  Success  seldom  deserted  him.  His  chief  duty  in  life, 
as  he  conceived  it,  was  to  keep  his  looms  at  work  and  his  wage- 


A  GROUP  OF  TOWNSMEN  6S 

earners  contentedly  employed,  and  from  this  task  he  could  not 
be  diverted.  With  the  traditional  Pomeroy  grace  of  person,  he 
had  inherited  an  imperious  manner  from  his  father,  that  perfect 
type  of  village  magnate,  of  whom  a  friend  said  that  "there  would 
be  no  living  with  Lemuel  Pomeroy,  if  he  were  not  almost  always 
right."  Theodore  Pomeroy's  influence  in  the  town  was  for  so- 
briety of  thought  and  action.  His  powerful  hand  ever  strove  to 
preserve  an  equable  balance  of  community  interests.  He  was, 
for  an  example,  a  constant  and  devout  supporter  of  the  Con- 
gregational faith;  nevertheless,  the  Roman  Catholic  church  of 
Pittsfield  found  an  early  temporary  shelter  under  the  roof  of  one 
of  his  buildings,  and  he  contributed  liberally  to  the  cost  of  build- 
ing St.  Joseph's. 

Zeno  Russell  was  another  Pittsfield  woolen  manufacturer 
who  aided  in  upholding  reliably  the  town's  industrial  prosperity. 
He  became  one  of  the  managers  in  the  firm  of  S.  N.  &  C.  Russell 
after  the  death  of  Charles  L.  Russell  in  1870,  having  been  for 
many  years  the  bookkeeper  in  the  factory's  oflace.  The  son  of 
Solomon  L.  Russell,  he  was  born  in  May,  1834,  and  died  at  Pitts- 
field, November  tenth,  1881.  Mr.  Russell  was  a  methodical, 
thoughtful,  high-principled  man,  and  a  long-time  deacon  of  the 
First  Church. 

John  C.  Parker,  who  was  born  in  Pittsfield,  February  fourth, 
1822,  and  there  died,  December  eighth,  1881,  was  prominent  in 
the  town  as  a  faithful  administrator  of  public  or  private  trusts. 
He  was  elected  selectman  in  1867  and  consecutively  from  1875 
to  1880.  He  was  a  member  of  the  well-known  Parker  family  of 
the  "West  Part",  and  inherited  exceptional  aptitude  and  fond- 
ness for  hunting  and  fishing.  This  made  him  more  familiar 
than  was  any  other  man  of  his  time  with  the  topography  and 
natural  history  of  Berkshire;  in  these  matters  he  was  a  sort  of 
official  village  referee,  as  well  as  in  local  tradition  and  neighbor- 
hood anecdote. 

Alonzo  E.  Goodrich  was  another  popular  selectman  of  the 
town,  wherein  his  great-grandfather,  one  of  its  early  settlers,  had 
been  a  selectman  in  1793.  Mr.  Goodrich,  a  carpenter  and  con- 
tractor, was  a  sergeant  in  Pittsfield's  Allen  Guard,  responding 
to  the  first  call  for  troops  in  1861.  Born  in  1815,  he  died  at 
Pittsfield,  February  twenty-fifth,   1881. 


54  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

The  story  of  the  industrious  and  upright  career  of  Solomon 
Lincoln  Russell  and  of  his  notable  services  to  Pittsfield  has  been 
gratefully  and  appropriately  told  in  J.  E.  A.  Smith's  second 
volume  of  the  chronicles  of  the  town.  To  that  tribute  it  is 
necessary  here  to  add  merely  the  record  of  Mr.  Russell's  death. 
It  occurred  at  Pittsfield,  January  eighth,  1882.  Born  at  Ches- 
terfield, Massachusetts,  February  fourth,  1791,  and  a  resident  of 
Pittsfield  since  1826,  he  was  in  1882  the  town's  oldest  citizen; 
and  the  end  of  his  honorable  life  deeply  affected  local  sentiment. 

Ensign  H.  Kellogg,  for  nearly  half  a  century  a  picturesque 
figure  in  the  front  rank  of  the  town's  leaders,  died  at  Pittsfield, 
January  twenty-third,  1882.  He  was  born  in  the  Berkshire 
town  of  Sheffield,  in  1812,  and  in  1836  was  graduated  from 
Amherst  College.  In  1838  he  came  to  Pittsfield  to  practice  law, 
but  the  profession  did  not  permanently  attract  him,  and  he 
gradually  abandoned  it.  By  his  marriage  in  1841  to  Miss  Caro- 
line Campbell,  he  became  allied  to  one  of  the  town's  influential 
families.  He  was  chosen  president  in  1861  of  the  Pontoosuc 
Woolen  Manufacturing  Company,  and  in  1866  of  the  Agricul- 
tural National  Bank,  both  of  which  important  offices  he  retained 
until  his  death.  His  public  career  may  be  said  to  have  begun  in 
1843,  when  he  was  first  elected  representative  from  Pittsfield  to 
the  General  Court  at  Boston.  Thereafter  Mr.  Kellogg  was  so 
elected  in  1844,  '47,  '49,  '50,  '51,  '52,  '70,  '71,  and  '76;  he  was 
twice  speaker  of  the  lower  house;  in  1853,  '54,  and  '77,  he  was 
elected  to  the  state  senate  from  his  Berkshire  district.  During 
the  final  years  of  his  life  he  served  under  an  appointment  by 
President  Hayes  as  the  United  States  member  of  the  interna- 
tional commission  which  met  at  Halifax  to  adjust  disputes  re- 
garding the  Canadian  fisheries. 

The  New  England  of  Mr.  Kellogg's  youth  and  maturity  was 
fond  of  speech-making,  and  it  was  as  a  speech-maker  that  the 
town  knew  him  most  familiarly.  His  presence  was  distinguished, 
his  voice  melodious,  and  his  courtesy  unfailing.  Always  an  ar- 
dent student  of  literature,  he  had  stored  his  mind  with  poetical, 
historical,  and  classical  allusion.  His  oratory  and  his  informal 
conversation  were  wont  to  take  soaring  and  eagle-like,  but  not 
aimless,  flights;    and  he  could  adorn  the  discussion  of  even  a 


A  GROUP  OF  TOWNSMEN  55 

commonplace  subject,  such  as  might  arise  in  a  political  caucus  or 
a  town  meeting,  with  genuine  eloquence. 

His  circle  of  intimate  acquaintance  among  the  prominent 
men  of  the  Commonwealth  was  very  large,  and  it  was  as  large 
and  intimate  among  the  people  on  the  farms  and  at  the  looms  of 
Pittsfield,  for  he  was  approachable,  democratic,  and,  like  his 
literary  idol,  Charles  Dickens,  a  sympathizing  appreciator  of 
quaint  and  strongly  marked  human  types,  wherever  he  found 
them.  He  was  fond,  also,  of  the  graces  of  life — of  music  and 
pictures.  By  minor  social  conventionalities  he  was  often  amus- 
ingly unfettered.  When  he  desired  to  fish  a  favorite  trout 
stream,  or  to  devote  twenty-four  successive  hours  to  a  favorite 
novel,  he  was  not  ordinarily  to  be  prevented,  and  on  the  former 
Dickinson  farm  in  the  northeastern  part  of  the  town,  a  broad 
tract  of  pasture  and  woodland  purchased  and  by  him  named 
"Morningside",  he  built  a  miniature  Swiss  chalet,  where  he  could, 
when  he  wished,  seclude  himself  from  over-importunate  men  of 
affairs. 

The  benign  influence  which  he  had  upon  Pittsfield  was  due  to 
his  personality,  to  the  trust  of  the  people  in  his  knowledge,  right 
feeling,  and  integrity,  rather  than  to  sustained  exertion  of  his 
brilliant  powers,  Mr.  Kellogg's  political  friends,  and  indeed 
he  had  in  Berkshire  few  political  enemies,  were  accustomed  to 
complain  because  he  seemed  to  content  himself,  so  far  as  effort 
on  his  own  part  was  concerned,  with  political  offices  lower  than 
the  highest  in  the  gift  of  the  Commonwealth.  But  his  tempera- 
ment, if  one  may  here  apply  a  modernly  abused  term,  was  es- 
sentially artistic,  and  it  shaped  his  life  in  its  own  way,  among 
his  books  and  his  neighbors. 

George  P.  Briggs  was  the  oldest  son  of  Governor  George 
Nixon  Briggs  and  was  born  at  Adams,  March  fourth,  1822. 
He  died  at  Pittsfield,  March  twenty-sixth,  1882.  Mr.  Briggs 
was  a  graduate  of  Williams  and  was  a  member  of  the  Berkshire 
bar,  but  after  the  death  of  his  father  he  turned  to  agriculture 
and  conducted  the  Governor's  cherished  farm  on  West  Street. 
He  was,  like  his  father,  a  valued  supporter  of  the  Baptist  Church. 
His  nature  was  gentle,  scholarly,  and  companionable,  and  among 


56  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

his  Pittsfield  contemporaries,  by  whom  he  was  much  beloved, 
he  was  noted  for  the  breadth  and  quahty  of  his  information. 

The  career  and  character  of  Edwin  Clapp  were  exhibitive 
of  those  sterHng  quaUties  of  citizenship  which  made  the  village 
of  Pittsfield  self-reliant.  His  lifelong  industry  was  devoted  to 
only  one  business,  and  his  practical  public  spirit  to  only  one 
community.  He  was  born  on  May  first,  1809,  in  Pittsfield,  where 
he  died,  July  twenty-seventh,  1884.  His  father,  Jason  Clapp, 
was  a  famous  builder  of  coaches  and  carriages;  his  large  shop 
was  on  the  present  Clapp  Avenue,  and  there  Edwin  Clapp  labor- 
ed contentedly,  honorably,  and  successfully  for  more  than  half  a 
century.  He  filled,  with  faithfulness  and  hard-headed  common 
sense,  many  positions  of  financial  responsibility;  and  his  almost 
constant  service  on  the  town's  special  committees  testifies  to 
the  popular  estimate  of  the  value  of  his  homely  wisdom.  With 
the  fire  department  he  was  intimately  identified,  for  he  was 
elected  foreman  of  one  of  the  volunteer  engine  companies  every 
year  from  1846  to  1883.  He  was  stalwartly  independent  in 
speech  and  judgment,  and  contemptuous  of  pretension. 

Mr.  Clapp's  shrewd  mind  was  able  thoroughly  and  quickly 
to  appreciate  the  value  to  the  community  of  the  Berkshire 
Athenaeum.  He  was  one  of  the  incorporators  named  in  the 
charter  of  that  institution,  and  he  continued  as  long  as  he  lived 
to  advance  its  interests  with  patient  and  unselfish  effort.  By 
the  will  of  Phineas  Allen,  under  which  the  Athenaeum  was  the 
residuary  legatee,  Mr.  Clapp  was  designated  a  trustee  of  the 
estate,  and  the  complicated  duties  of  the  trust  were  performed 
by  him  alone  and,  at  his  own  request,  without  compensation. 

Francis  E.  Kernochan,  although  a  resident  of  Pittsfield  for 
less  than  a  dozen  years,  was  long  remembered  by  the  community 
with  affection  and  esteem.  He  was  born  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  December  twelfth,  1840,  was  graduated  from  Yale  College 
in  1861,  was  married  in  1866  to  Miss  Abba  Learned,  daughter  of 
Edvv^ard  Learned  of  Pittsfield,  and  became  a  citizen  of  the  town 
in  1873,  having  acquired  an  interest  in  the  woolen  mill  at  Bel 
Air.  He  died  at  Pittsfield,  on  September  twenty-sixth,  1884. 
Mr.  Kernochan  was  a  man  of  scholarly  and  social  refinement 
and  of  joyously  intense  application  to  whatever  his  hands  were 


A  GROUP  OF  TOWNSMEN  57 

set  to  do;  he  was  twice  elected  to  the  office  of  town  selectman  at 
a  time  when  that  distinction  was  habitually  reserved  for  natives 
of  Berkshire. 

A  factor  of  influence  in  the  town's  business  life  was  Nathan 
Gallup  Brown,  who  died  at  Pittsfield,  October  twenty-third, 
1884.  He  was  born  in  Preston,  Connecticut,  January  twenty- 
seventh,  1818;  and  he  came  to  Pittsfield,  as  an  innkeeper  and 
merchant,  when  the  railroad  was  built  through  the  village. 
Mr.  Brown  served  the  town  as  a  representative  to  the  General 
Court  during  the  Civil  War,  and  the  fire  district  as  a  water  com- 
missioner, and  did  much  of  importance  toward  conserving  the 
commercial  interests  of  the  community. 

The  business  activities  of  no  Pittsfield  man  ever  were  wider 
in  range  than  those  of  Edward  Learned.  He  was  born  at  Water- 
vliet.  New  York,  February  twenty-sixth,  1820,  became  a  resident 
of  Pittsfield  in  1850,  and  there  died,  February  nineteenth,  1886. 
He  was  trained  in  boyhood  to  be  a  surveyor,  and  a  conspicuous 
talent  for  mathematics  was  always  of  advantage  to  him.  Mr. 
Learned's  first  important  enterprises  were  those  of  a  contractor 
for  structural  work  and  material  for  public  buildings,  principally 
custom  houses,  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  and  as  early  as 
1852  he  was  a  prominent  capitalist  in  Pittsfield,  and  interested 
financially  there  in  woolen  manufacturing.  During  the  years 
immediately  succeeding  the  Civil  War  his  fortunes  prospered 
rapidly,  He  acquired  lucrative  mining  property  in  the  Lake 
Superior  region,  and  made  other  profitable  ventures  of  various 
sorts.  His  most  considerable  project  was  to  build  a  railroad 
connecting  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  with  the  Gulf  of  Tehuantepec  on 
the  Pacific.  This  involved  not  only  financial  and  engineering 
problems  of  great  magnitude,  but  also  the  difficult  diplomatic 
task  of  obtaining  secure  concessions  from  the  Mexican  govern- 
ment, Mr.  Learned's  resolute  ability  overcame  many  obstacles; 
nevertheless,  the  undertaking  finally  languished,  and  he  died 
before  he  could  revive  it.  He  had  been  married  in  1840  to  Miss 
Caroline  Stoddard  of  Pittsfield. 

Mr.  Learned,  in  business  affairs,  was  a  man  of  large  vision, 
who  did  not,  as  the  village  said  of  him,  "go  hunting  for  spar- 
rows"; but  his  robust,  alert  mind,  fortified  by  a  courageous  will. 


58  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

prevented  him  from  being  a  merely  speculative  dreamer.  His 
youth  had  taught  him  the  worth  of  perseverance  and  of  intelli- 
gent industry,  and  he  neither  forgot  the  lesson  nor  ever  failed  to 
apply  it.  He  made  bold  ventures,  and  he  handled  them  boldly, 
but  his  boldness  was  sure  to  be  backed  by  shrewd  judgment  and 
a  remarkably  comprehensive  grasp  of  detail. 

A  convincing  public  speaker,  he  was  a  valuable  contributor 
of  counsel  to  the  conduct  of  the  town's  affairs,  and  he  was  a 
liberal  contributor  of  money  to  the  town's  meritorious  causes. 
In  1857  he  was  elected  to  represent  Pittsfield  in  the  General 
Court,  and  he  served  in  1873  and  1874  as  a  state  senator  from 
the  Berkshire  district.  His  patriotism  was  unswerving,  and 
upon  the  first  nomination  of  Abraham  Lincoln  for  the  presidency 
he  is  reputed  to  have  been  the  earliest  to  telegraph  pecuniary 
support  to  the  Republican  campaign.  In  person  he  was  com- 
pactly framed,  with  a  clean-cut,  finely  chiseled  face.  He  was 
fond  of  good  horses,  and  knew  how  to  drive  them.  His  fine 
home,  called  "Elmwood",  was  on  Broad  Street;  and  there  he 
maintained  a  sumptuous  hospitality. 

Samuel  W.  Bowerman,  a  lawyer  eminent  in  Western  Massa- 
chusetts, was  born  at  North  Adams,  May  eighth,  1820.  Novem- 
ber second,  1887,  he  died  at  Pittsfield,  where  he  had  lived  since 
1857,  having  been  in  1844  graduated  from  Williams  College. 
Berkshire  juries  and  Berkshire  public  meetings  soon  found  that 
he  was  a  notably  effective  advocate,  using  sound,  understandable 
arguments,  and  speaking  with  plain  force  and  directness.  In 
politics,  having  been  a  vigorous  "war  Democrat"  in  '61,  he  al- 
ways attacked  narrow  partisanship.  His  legal  practice  was  ex- 
tensive and  important;  but  in  his  later  years  it  was  not  easy  to 
excite  his  active  professional  interest  except  by  cases  of  unusual 
complication  or  consequence.  He  invested  profitably  in  local 
real  estate,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  owned  the  land  and 
buildings  at  the  corner  of  West  and  South  Streets.  Mr.  Bower- 
man  was  an  earnest,  sagacious  man,  whose  opinions  were  deemed 
authoritative  by  his  fellow  citizens.  His  counsel  was  of  particu- 
lar value  to  St.  Stephen's  Church,  of  which  he  was  a  devout  sup- 
porter. 

The  position  in  the  community  attained  by  Owen  Coogan 


A  GROUP  OF  TOWNSMEN  59 

was  a  beneficial  stimulation  for  many  years  to  the  Irishmen  of 
Pittsfield.  He  was  born  in  County  Antrim,  Ireland,  in  1820, 
and  about  1849  became  a  resident  of  Pittsfield,  where  he  estab- 
lished himself  in  the  business  of  a  tanner.  Mr.  Coogan,  who 
was  one  of  the  town's  representatives  in  the  state  legislature,  was 
an  unassuming,  reliable,  and  respected  agent  of  much  good  in 
civic  life,  and  a  mainstay  of  his  church,  St.  Joseph's,  in  its  strug- 
gling pioneer  days;  and  among  his  fellow  countrymen,  when 
they  constituted  more  than  half  of  the  foreign-born  population  of 
the  town,  the  influence  of  his  strong,  upright  character  was  es- 
pecially salutary.  On  December  eleventh,  1887,  he  died  at 
Pittsfield. 

A  successful  and  respected  Pittsfield  farmer  of  the  old-fash- 
ioned type  was  Chauncey  Goodrich,  who  had  been  trained  in  his 
vocation  when  agriculture  was  the  town's  chief  reliance.  He 
was  born  in  Pittsfield,  December  third,  1797,  and  died  there, 
April  twenty-ninth,  1887.  For  eleven  years  he  was  a  selectman, 
and  his  probity  and  good  judgment  were  highly  esteemed. 

The  career  in  Pittsfield  of  Abraham  Burbank  was  in  many 
respects  extraordinary.  He  was  born  in  West  Springfield, 
Massachusetts,  June  thirteenth,  1813,  and  came  in  1832  to 
Pittsfield,  where  he  worked  as  a  journeyman  carpenter.  His 
earliest  purchase  of  real  estate  was  a  small  plot  of  land  on  Fenn 
Street;  and  there,  utilizing  whatever  time  he  could  spare  from 
his  regular  employment,  he  managed  to  finish  a  house.  In  1834 
he  was  married  to  Miss  Julia  Brown  of  Pittsfield.  He  sold  his 
house,  took  a  note  in  payment,  and  went  to  Michigan,  where 
with  his  wife  he  spent  a  frontier  winter  in  a  log  cabin;  but  the 
note  proved  worthless,  and  Mr.  Burbank  returned  to  Pittsfield 
in  1837,  having  for  his  financial  capital  the  sum  of  five  dollars. 
When  he  died,  half  a  century  later,  he  owned  far  more  real  estate 
of  value  than  anybody  else  in  town. 

The  man's  industry  was  little  short  of  marvellous.  He  was 
at  the  same  time  a  builder,  a  farmer,  a  hotel-keeper,  a  merchant, 
and  a  landlord  of  several  business  blocks  and  of  scores  of  tene- 
ments. His  physical  constitution  was  metallic.  With  hammer 
and  saw,  or  in  the  haying  field,  he  did,  until  the  day  of  his  death, 
the  work  of  several  men.     In  the  quantity  of  his  building  opera- 


(JO  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

tions,  he  was  quite  as  likely  to  be  ahead  of  the  town's  growth  as 
behind  it.  In  1847  he  built  a  brick  block  on  the  west  side  of  lower 
North  Street;  in  1857  he  bought  and  developed  the  land  now 
bounded  by  North  Street,  Depot  Street,  Morton  Place,  and  the 
railroad.  He  acquired  in  1860  the  tract  now  enclosed  by  Francis 
Avenue,  Union  Street,  North  Street,  and  Columbus  Avenue.  In 
the  northeastern  quarter  of  the  village  he  opened  many  resi- 
dential streets,  while  on  his  broad  farm,  next  to  the  high  road 
to  Pontoosuc,  he  erected  houses  at  Springside,  and  the  then  con- 
spicuous row  of  angular  tenements  long  known  to  the  irreverent 
as  "Abraham's  saw-teeth".  Mr.  Burbank  was  not  accustomed 
to  regard  architectural  elegance,  or  even  the  services  of  an  archi- 
tect, as  indispensable. 

He  died  at  Pittsfield,  November  twenty-third,  1887.  To 
many  a  poor  boy,  compelled  to  face  the  world  with  bare  hands, 
the  story  of  Abraham  Burbank's  hardy  persistence  was  inspirit- 
ing; nor  did  the  village,  while  smiling  at  the  countless  anecdotes 
of  his  thrifty  economies,  fail  to  respect  his  courage,  and  to  be 
thankful  often  for  his  faith  in  its  future.  Mention  is  made  elsewhere 
of  his  last  will,  by  which  he  purposed  that  the  bulk  of  his  large 
estate  should  ultimately  provide  for  Pittsfield  a  free  hospital,  a 
school  fund,  and  a  public  park. 

A  fine  example  of  the  ready  devotion  with  which  substantial 
citizens  served  Pittsfield,  under  the  town  meeting  system,  was 
the  participation  of  Henry  Colt  in  the  village  government. 
The  son  of  James  D.  Colt,  he  was  born  at  Pittsfield,  November 
twelfth,  1812.  In  1839  he  was  married  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Bacon, 
daughter  of  the  distinguished  Ezekiel  Bacon  of  Pittsfield.  Mr. 
Colt's  earlier  life  was  that  of  a  farmer,  but  there  was  a  close 
connection  then  between  Berkshire  agriculture  and  Berkshire 
manufacturing,  because  of  the  importance  to  the  manufacturer 
of  the  raising  of  Berkshire  sheep;  and  Mr.  Colt,  a  prosperous 
wool  dealer,  became  in  1852  the  first  president  of  the  Pittsfield 
Woolen  Company,  whose  factory  was  on  the  present  Wahconah 
Street,  near  Bel  Air.  In  1868  he  was  chosen  by  the  legislature  to 
the  directorate  of  the  Boston  and  Albany  Railroad,  and  he  so 
served  until  the  end  of  his  life.  Mr.  Colt  died  at  Pittsfield, 
January  sixteenth,  1888. 


A  GROUP  OF  TOWNSMEN  §1 

In  the  conduct  of  public  affairs  his  fellow  townsmen  were  ac- 
customed to  lean  often  upon  him,  because  of  his  safe,  conserva- 
tive judgment,  because  he  could  with  peculiar  authority  speak 
at  once  for  the  farming,  the  manufacturing,  and  the  financial 
interests,  and  because  of  his  ingrained  and  inherited  loyalty  to 
Pittsfield.  He  was  a  member  of  the  General  Court,  and  was  se- 
lectman from  1852  to  1856,  and  again  from  1861  to  1867;  and 
his  steadying  value  in  the  latter  office  was  proved  particularly 
during  the  strain  and  excitement  of  the  Civil  War.  Mr.  Colt 
seems  to  have  been  rated  by  his  contemporaries  as  the  reliable 
balance  wheel  of  the  community  mechanism,  but  he  was  none 
the  less  a  constantly  propelling  force  in  the  welfare  of  the  town. 

The  store  of  William  G.  Backus  on  the  corner  of  Bank  Row 
and  South  Street  was  a  sort  of  landmark  of  the  older  business 
center  of  the  town  for  many  years.  Born  in  Pittsfield  in  1813, 
Mr.  Backus  died  there,  November  third,  1888.  He  was  a  dealer 
in  stoves  and  plumbers'  supplies,  and  was  so  engaged  in  the 
town  for  half  a  century.  Mr.  Backus  was  a  member  of  the  first 
board  of  engineers  chosen  by  the  fire  district  in  1844,  and  was 
dependable  for  the  performance  of  duties  of  good  citizenship. 

Robert  Pomeroy  impressed  himself  upon  the  social  life  of 
Pittsfield  more  picturesquely  than  any  other  man  of  his  time. 
He  was  born  in  Pittsfield  on  June  thirtieth,  1817,  and  until  1884 
lived  on  East  Street  in  the  ancestral  homestead,  which  stood 
opposite  the  head  of  First  Street,  and  has  since  perished.  There, 
in  joyous,  patriarchal  fashion,  he  was  a  memorable  host.  The 
roomy  old  house,  with  its  orchards  and  well-stocked  paddocks, 
had  descended  to  Mr.  Pomeroy  from  his  father,  Lemuel  Pomeroy, 
from  whom  also  he  had  inherited  a  lucrative  interest  in  the  woolen 
mills  of  L.  Pomeroy's  Sons.  He  engaged  his  capital,  too,  in 
profitable  manufacturing  enterprises  at  Taconic  and  Bel  Air; 
and  in  iron  works  at  West  Stockbridge.  He  had  a  Solomon-like 
fondness  for  doing  large,  lavish,  and  generous  things.  Mr. 
Pomeroy  in  aspect  was  precisely  what  he  should  have  been — 
debonair,  handsome,  radiant  of  vivacious  spirit.  His  breezy 
speech  and  cordial  charm  of  manner  made  friends  whose  brilliant 
circle  extended  to  Canada  and  England,  and  with  equal  solici- 
tude and  hospitality  he  cherished  his  friends  in  his  home  town. 


62  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

By  them,  and  indeed  by  the  entire  village,  he  was  affectionately 
known  as  "Colonel  Bob". 

His  business  talent  was  neither  constructive  nor  patient; 
and  in  the  besetment  of  financial  depression  he  made  speculative 
ventures  which  caused  his  fortunes,  soon  after  1876,  to  fall  upon 
darkened  days.  He  endured  losses  with  equanimity  and  philo- 
sophical courage;  and  he  died  at  Pittsfield  on  December  twelfth, 
1889.  In  1840  he  had  been  married  to  Miss  Mary  Jenkins  of 
Pittsfield. 

Edward  Pomeroy,  another  son  of  the  imperial  Lemuel,  was 
born  at  Pittsfield,  September  third,  1820,  and  died  there,  August 
second,  1889.  A  man  of  esthetic  tastes,  he  stood  in  his  youth 
at  the  anvil  in  his  father's  gun  factory;  but  his  later  life  was 
almost  that  of  a  recluse,  spent  in  his  garden  and  his  library. 
Floriculture  had  a  no  more  ardent  or  successful  devotee  in 
Berkshire. 

Dewitt  C.  Munyan,  a  trusted  selectman  and  a  representative 
of  Pittsfield  in  the  state  legislature,  was  a  contractor  who  erected 
a  large  share  of  the  town's  public  and  private  buildings  after 
1851,  when  he  came  with  his  father  to  Pittsfield  to  finish  the 
construction  of  the  medical  college  on  South  Street.  Mr.  Mun- 
yan was  born  in  Northampton,  Massachusetts,  in  1825,  and  died 
at  Pittsfield,  October  twenty-seventh,  1889.  The  court  house, 
the  Athenaeum,  the  Berkshire  Life  Insurance  Company's 
building,  and  the  county  jail  are  some  of  the  products  of  his 
capable  workmanship. 

Dr.  Abner  M.  Smith  was  a  well-known  physician  and  a  help- 
ful citizen  of  Pittsfield  for  thirty-three  years.  He  was  born  in 
Dalton  in  1819,  and  became  in  1856  a  resident  of  Pittsfield, 
where  he  died.  May  twenty-third,  1889.  Enthusiastic  in  culti- 
vating fraternal  relations  with  his  professional  associates,  he 
was  prominent  in  the  medical  societies  of  both  the  county  and 
the  town.  Dr.  Smith  gave  public-spirited  service  as  a  member  of 
the  school  committee,  for  he  was  always  a  seeker  of  learning; 
and  many  families  knew  him  to  be  a  tolerant  friend  and  a  gen- 
erous counsellor. 

John  T.  Power  was  a  Pittsfield  manufacturer  schooled  among 
the  traditions  of  those  who  had  so  successfully  founded  the 


A  GROUP  OF  TOWNSMEN  63 

town's  textile  industry.  He  was  born  in  Pittsfield,  July  eleventh, 
1844  and  died  on  March  sixth,  1890.  Mr.  Power  learned  his 
business  under  the  vigorous  tutelage  of  Theodore  Pomeroy;  in 
1882  he  entered  the  partnership  of  Tillotson  and  Power,  which 
operated  its  factory  in  southwestern  Pittsfield.  He  had  a 
stanch,  perhaps  an  old-fashioned,  ideal  of  duty  to  his  vocation 
and  to  the  people  in  his  employ,  and  the  community  knew  him 
for  a  safely  and  firmly  fixed  quantity  among  its  younger  men. 
For  many  years  he  was  a  trusted  oflBcer  of  the  First  Church. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  CHANGE  FROM  TOWN  TO  CITY 

AT  the  April  town  meeting  of  1872,  John  C.  West,  who  had 
been  a  selectman  for  nineteen  years,  proposed  to  decHne 
re-election;  and  Thomas  F.  Plunkett,  in  a  speech  com- 
menting on  Mr.  West's  services  to  the  town,  suggested  that  the 
administration  of  public  affairs  had  grown  too  burdensome  to  be 
sustained  chiefly  by  three  men,  and  that  the  time  had  come  for 
Pittsfield  to  apply  to  the  General  Court  for  incorporation  as  a 
city.  The  suggestion  was  not  very  seriously  advanced,  nor  was 
it  at  the  time  seriously  considered;  but  a  special  town  meeting, 
called  in  the  following  June,  authorized,  by  a  vote  of  83  to  73, 
the  appointment  of  a  committee  of  five  to  report  on  the  advisa- 
bility of  adopting  a  city  form  of  government.  The  members  of 
the  committee  were  George  Y.  Learned,  James  M.  Barker,  John 
C.  West,  William  R.  Plunkett,  and  George  P.  Briggs.  Their 
labors  were  apparently  languid.  An  informal  report  was  made 
to  the  town  meeting  of  April,  1873,  and  a  motion  prevailed  "that 
the  whole  subject  of  the  City  Charter  be  recommitted  to  the 
Committee  to  report  at  the  next  annual  meeting."  After  an- 
other year  accordingly,  the  committee  presented  a  somewhat  in- 
determinate plan  for  the  election  of  nine  selectmen  from  whom 
one  should  be  chosen  "to  transact  all  the  town  business",  a 
method  of  municipal  government  which  appears  to  resemble  in 
some  respects  the  modern  scheme  of  administration  through  a  city 
manager.  The  subject  was  recommitted.  The  committee  then 
drafted  a  city  charter,  obtained  the  enactment  of  it  by  the  Gen- 
eral Court  in  April,  1875,  and  was  thereupon  discharged  by  the 
town. 

In  the  meantime,  the  slender  public  desire  for  a  charter  had 
become  still  more  attenuated  for  two  reasons.  One  of  them,  al- 
ready mentioned  in  these  pages,  was  the  revelation  of  govern- 


THE  CHANGE  FROM  TOWN  TO  CITY  65 

mental  corruption  in  several  great  American  cities,  which  for  a 
brief  period  made  people  everywhere  in  the  country  vaguely  and 
unduly  distrustful  of  mayors  and  aldermen.  The  other  reason 
was  the  pressure  of  hard  times,  following  the  financial  panic  of 
1873.  Opposition  to  a  change  of  government  in  Pittsfield  was 
so  general  that  the  selectmen  did  not  deem  it  worth  while  even 
to  submit  the  charter  to  the  voters,  although  the  two  years' 
period  required  for  its  acceptance  was  extended  to  one  of  four. 
The  charter  was  modeled  conservatively  on  the  form  of  city 
charter  then  usual  in  the  Commonwealth,  and  provided  for  the 
division  of  the  new  city  into  six  wards,  from  each  of  which  an  al- 
derman and  three  common  councilmen  were  to  be  chosen. 

From  1875  to  1885,  the  project  of  changing  town  to  city  was 
allowed  to  slumber  peacefully,  but  observant  men  were  noting 
with  disquietude  the  altered  character  of  the  town  and  the  fire 
district  meetings,  wherein  were  hastily  decided  questions  becom- 
ing every  year  more  numerous  and  complex.  The  former  habit 
of  patient  discussion  and  of  leisurely  reference  to  committees 
was  often  infringed,  while  there  was  an  increasing  proportion  of 
citizens  unwilling  or  unable  to  spare  the  time  necessary  for  in- 
telligent acquaintance  with  the  public  measures  upon  which  they 
were  to  vote.  The  palate  of  the  town  meeting  began  to  demand 
the  spice  of  constant  action,  and  the  pepper  of  quick  decision; 
those  eager  for  what  they  called  "fun"  were  in  evidence  more 
often  than  formerly;  and  a  humorist  with  a  loud  voice  and  a 
broad  joke  was  a  more  dangerous  opponent  than  he  had  once 
been  to  sagacious  and  important  action. 

The  town  meeting  warrant  of  1885  contained  an  article  pro- 
posing the  designation  of  a  committee  empowered  to  draft  a  city 
charter,  and  to  apply  to  the  legislature  of  1886  for  its  enactment. 
The  article  caused  a  vigorous,  sharp-witted,  and  dignified  debate. 
Advocates  of  a  change  emphasized  the  need  of  harmonizing  the 
divided  and  rapidly  growing  responsibilities  of  the  town  and  the 
fire  district,  the  discrepancy  between  the  increasing  size  of  the 
town  meeting's  appropriations  and  the  time  available  for  consid- 
ering them,  and  the  stiff  argument  of  the  census.  In  reply, 
Pittsfield's  traditional  and  deeply  rooted  repugnance  to  the  dele- 
gation of  authority  found  forcible  expression,  as,  for  example,  in 


66  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

an  earnest  speech  by  Samuel  W.  Bowerman,  who  declared  that, 
so  far  as  the  argument  of  the  census  was  concerned,  he  should 
rather  vote  to  build  a  new^  town  hall  seating  five  thousand  people 
than  vote  to  surrender  the  present  right  of  every  citizen  to  en- 
gage actively  in  the  affairs  of  the  town.  Other  influential  and 
effective  speakers  maintained  that  local  legislation  through  dele- 
gates would  be  intolerable,  that  the  town  was  not  beyond  "the 
government  in  open  meeting  of  men  of  brains  and  virtue",  and 
that  all  which  could  be  gained  by  a  city  charter  would  be  costly 
municipal  machinery  "and  a  dozen  fat  aldermen". 

The  powerful  opposition,  however,  finally  consented,  with 
only  a  few  negative  votes,  to  the  appointment  of  a  committee  of 
reference.  This  included  in  its  membership  of  twenty-five  the 
most  prominent  of  those  both  in  favor  and  in  disapproval  of  a 
city  form  of  government;  and  upon  it  were  Abraham  Burbank, 
Thomas  Barber,  S.  W.  Bowerman,  J.  M.  Barker,  Joseph  Tucker, 
Jacob  Gimlich,  William  Turtle,  E.  D.  Jones,  Redmond  Welch, 
J.  Dwight  Francis,  W.  M.  Mercer,  S.  N.  Russell,  Henry  Noble, 
D.  C.  Munyan,  J.  F.  Van  Deusen,  J.  M.  Stevenson,  W.  R. 
Plunkett,  A.  J.  Waterman,  J.  L.  Peck,  James  W.  Hull,  C.  W. 
Kellogg,  Thomas  A.  Oman,  Laforest  Logan,  Harvey  Henry, 
and  W.  W.  Whiting. 

Of  this  committee's  deliberations  the  result  was  the  drafting 
of  a  charter  which  the  legislature  declined  to  grant.  Its  salient 
feature  was  the  provision  of  a  city  council  of  a  single  board,  to 
consist  of  seventeen  aldermen,  of  whom  three  were  to  be  elected 
at  large.  The  city  of  Waltham  had  obtained  a  similar  charter. 
The  legislative  powers  at  Boston  in  18S6,  however,  were  not  con- 
vinced that,  in  the  case  of  Pittsfield,  the  Waltham  form  of  charter 
was  expedient  and  just;  and  the  local  proponents  of  the  change 
from  town  to  city  made  no  immediate  attempt  toward  the  fram- 
ing of  a  substitute.  From  the  feeling  displayed  at  the  meetings 
of  the  general  committee  and  at  less  formal  discussions,  they 
judged  it  to  be  unlikely  that  a  considerable  majority  of  the  voters 
could  then  be  obtained  for  the  acceptance  of  any  charter  what- 
ever. The  agitation  developed  a  strong  sentimental  attachment 
for  the  old  town  and  fire  district  systems,  which  caused  their  in- 
creasing difficulties  and  dangers  to  become  for  the  moment  in- 


THE  CHANGE  FROM  TOWN  TO  CITY  67 

distinct.  Simply  because  they  had  been  habitually  followed, 
people  were  inclined  to  believe  that  the  old  systems  were  practical. 

Nevertheless,  the  efforts  of  the  committee  of  1885  were  by  no 
means  in  vain.  Its  sub-committee  on  statistics  compiled  and 
published  an  elaborately  informative  report  of  the  town's  fi- 
nances between  the  years  1875  and  1885,  which  compelled  the 
thoughtful  attention  of  every  tax-payer,  large  or  small.  No 
public  document  on  a  similar  scale  had  ever  been  printed  in 
Pittsfield.  A  defect  of  the  town  meeting  government  had  been 
that  it  encouraged  in  the  voters  a  tendency  to  consider  each 
financial  question  as  a  thing  apart,  without  estimating  its  rela- 
tion to  the  future  or  to  the  past.  The  sub-committee's  report 
was  a  comprehensive  study  of  the  expenses  of  a  decade,  en  bloc, 
both  of  the  town  and  the  fire  district.  Briefly  summarized,  it 
showed  that,  from  1875  to  1885,  the  amount  chargeable  to  the 
administration  of  the  dual  government  had  been  $132,979.76; 
to  general  expenses,  $918,610.30;  to  permanent  improvements, 
$197,929.87;    and  to  interest  payments,  $243,953,87. 

That  these  sums  must  substantially  increase  during  the  next 
ten  years,  was  perfectly  patent.  That  their  expenditure  could 
with  justice  and  economy  be  regulated  by  a  town  meeting  form 
of  government  was  becoming  doubtful.  Moreover,  it  was  the 
investigation  of  this  sub-committee  which  led  indirectly  to  the 
disclosure  of  the  looseness  of  accounting  between  the  town  and  a 
former  treasurer;  and  the  fact  that  this  irregularity  could  have 
existed  for  so  long  without  correction  was  not  reassuring  to 
those  who  still  believed  in  adhering  to  the  town  meeting. 

In  1888,  the  thirty -first  article  of  the  April  town  meeting 
warrant  read  as  follows:  "To  see  if  the  town  will  establish  a  rate 
of  wages  for  town  work".  When  the  article  was  moved  for  con- 
sideration, it  was  seen  at  once  that  the  meeting  was  in  the  control 
of  men  who  already  knew  exactly  what  they  wanted,  and  were 
determined  to  obtain  it.  Indisposed  to  listen  to  argument,  and 
unwilling  to  reply  to  it,  the  resolute  majority  voted  that  no  em- 
ployee of  the  town  should  be  paid  less  than  two  dollars  for  a 
working  day  of  ten  hours.  Critics  from  all  classes  and  parties 
vainly  represented  that  this  regulation  would  throw  out  of  the 
town's  employment  the  aged  and  infirm  who  could  not  earn  the 


68  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

wages  fixed,  that  it  would  be  as  sensible  for  the  meeting  to  award 
interest  at  variance  with  the  current  rate  to  lenders  of  money  to 
the  town,  and  that  an  individual  thus  conducting  his  private 
enterprises  would  be  judged  to  be  insane  by  the  very  people  who 
supported  the  measure.  The  debate,  if  indeed  it  can  properly  be 
so  called,  provoked  unique  turbulence  and  acrimony,  which  af- 
fected, by  a  sort  of  contagion,  the  transaction  of  other  business 
by  the  stormy  meeting,  where  $170,000  was  appropriated  in  the 
course  of  an  afternoon.  The  result  was  a  large  and  important 
accession  to  those  who  advocated  a  city  charter. 

At  about  this  time,  too,  their  position  was  somewhat  strength- 
ened by  a  temporarily  unfortunate  administration  of  the  town's 
affairs.  The  selectmen,  because  of  a  slight  and  technical  irreg- 
ularity in  the  drawing  of  jurors,  had  been  forced  publicly  to  de- 
fend themselves  against  charges  of  laxness,  and,  indeed,  their 
indictment  at  law  was  sought,  a  proceeding  which  disturbed  the 
town  hardly  the  less  because  it  proved  to  be  abortive. 

In  a  special  town  meeting  convened  in  September,  1888, 
a  motion  to  apply  for  the  third  time  to  the  legislature  for  a 
charter  prevailed  without  objection;  and  it  was  noted  as  a  good 
omen  of  harmonious  non-partisanship  that  the  moderator  of  the 
meeting,  a  Democrat  in  politics,  designated  as  a  committee  for 
the  purpose  one  Democrat  and  four  Republicans.  These  were 
Joseph  Tucker,  Thomas  Barber,  John  C.  Crosby,  Emory  H. 
Nash,  and  H.  S.  Russell.  By  them  much  of  the  work  of  prepar- 
ing a  city  charter  was  delegated  to  Mr.  Crosby,  who  published 
the  draft  in  the  following  December.  It  provided  for  a  govern- 
mental body  of  two  boards.  Nine  aldermen  were  to  be  chosen, 
one  from  each  of  six  wards  and  three  at  large,  while  the  lower 
board  was  to  be  composed  of  fifteen  common  councilmen,  of 
whom  the  number  to  be  chosen  at  large  was  three.  Every  order 
of  either  board  was  to  be  presented  to  the  mayor,  and  for  its 
passage  over  his  veto  a  two-thirds  vote  of  such  board  was  to  be 
requisite,  or  of  both  boards,  when  concurrent  action  was  neces- 
sary. The  concurrent  vote  of  both  bodies  was  to  elect  a  board 
of  public  works  of  six  members.  The  voters  of  the  city  were  to 
elect  a  school  committee  of  nine,  one  from  each  ward  and  three  at 
large.  This  charter  was  submitted  to  the  Commonwealth's 
committee  on  cities. 


THE  CHANGE  FROM  TOWN  TO  CITY  69 

It  was  now  clearly  apparent  that  Pittsfield  was  resolved  to 
obtain  a  city  charter  of  some  kind.  Within  three  years,  senti- 
ment had  sharply  veered.  The  general  impression  seemed  to  be 
that  a  charter  in  almost  any  form  was  better  than  none  at  all. 
The  suggestion  that,  at  the  cost  of  further  delay,  it  might  be  wise 
to  ascertain  by  vote  of  a  town  meeting  the  form  of  charter  con- 
sonant with  the  wishes  of  the  town,  and  to  present  it  to  the  legis- 
lature with  the  endorsement  of  such  a  vote,  was  disagreeable  to 
the  impatient  public  mood.  The  situation  was  not  without  a 
certain  menace;  for  the  over-hurried  electorate  might  accept 
hastily  any  charter  offered  to  it  by  the  General  Court. 

In  February,  1889,  the  legislative  committee  at  Boston  held  a 
hearing  in  the  matter  of  the  Pittsfield  charter,  and  there  the 
principle  of  elections  at  large  to  the  city  council  was  attacked  by 
several  Pittsfield  remonstrants,  led  by  Edward  T.  Slocum. 
When  the  charter  finally  emerged  from  the  committee-room, 
three  months  afterward,  it  was  altered  radically  from  the  draft 
prepared  in  Pittsfield,  and  was  not,  in  several  essentials,  the 
charter  asked  for  by  the  town's  committee.  The  mayor  was 
closely  shorn  of  power.  No  members  of  the  city  council  or  of 
the  school  committee  were  to  be  elected  at  large.  The  board  of 
public  works  was  to  consist  of  three  members.  One  alderman, 
two  members  of  the  common  council,  and  two  school  committee- 
men were  to  be  elected  from  each  of  seven  wards.  In  May  the 
amended  charter  passed  the  legislature,  a  substitute  in  the  origi- 
nal form  having  been  offered  in  the  lower  house  by  a  Pittsfield 
representative,  Charles  M.  Wilcox,  and  having  been  rejected. 
Provision  was  made  whereby  the  selectmen  might  submit  the 
charter  to  the  voters  of  the  town,  and  a  majority  of  the  ballots 
actually  cast  should  determine  its  acceptance. 

This  form  of  charter  was  not  experimental.  Having  been 
devised  for  the  city  of  Boston  by  Lemuel  Shaw,  the  great  chief 
justice,  it  was  in  successful  operation  in  most  of  the  cities  of  New 
England;  and  it  was  framed  in  accordance  with  the  dual  system 
of  governmental  checks  and  balances  familiar  to  the  mind  of 
every  American,  and  fortified  by  the  examples  of  the  bicameral 
legislative  bodies  of  the  Commonwealth  and  of  the  United  States. 

The  selectmen  announced  that  they  would  not  arrange  for  a 


70  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

vote  on  the  acceptance  of  the  charter  until  "after  haying  time"; 
and  in  the  meantime  the  document  was  earnestly  assailed  and 
as  earnestly  defended.  Opponents  of  elections  at  large  to  the 
city  council  and  to  the  school  committee  had  grounded  their  be- 
lief firmly  upon  the  argument  that  such  a  stipulation  would  allow 
to  the  political  party  locally  dominant  more  than  its  just  power 
in  the  municipal  government.  To  this  it  was  retorted  that  town 
officials  had  always  been  so  chosen  in  Pittsfield  without  unfair 
results.  But  the  fact  was  that  the  old  town  method  in  general 
was  now  precisely  what  most  of  the  people  were  anxious  to  cast 
aside.  They  had  obviously  had  enough  of  it.  Its  unfitness  for 
existing  conditions  during  the  past  year  or  two  had  become,  in 
their  estimation,  especially  apparent.  The  proposed  city  charter 
might,  or  might  not,  be  defective,  but  at  any  rate  there  it  was, 
a  concrete  thing.  If  they  declined  it,  no  man  could  say  how 
long  a  time  might  elapse  before  another  would  be  offered  to 
them,  nor  could  any  man  predict,  with  even  the  slightest  degree 
of  certainty,  that  another  charter  would  be  more  generally  ac- 
ceptable. 

From  both  sides,  accusations  of  partisan  maneuvering,  in 
and  out  of  the  State  House,  were  launched  without  disturbing 
very  much  this  sweeping  undercurrent  of  public  desire.  Aca- 
demic discussion  of  the  charter,  pro  and  con,  apparently  excited 
only  a  half-hearted  attention  from  the  majority.  Local  men 
who  now  attempted  to  revive  interest  in  the  principle  of  a  city 
council  with  a  single  board  found  it  not  easy  to  obtain  an  au- 
dience. The  city  government  of  Quincy,  so  chartered  in  1888, 
had  not  then  been  tested;  nor  was  it  probable,  had  any  lesson 
of  experience  been  properly  deducible  from  the  workings  of  the 
Quincy  charter  in  1889,  that  the  contemporary  voters  of  Pitts- 
field  would  have  considered  it  studiously. 

Nevertheless,  a  number  of  men  addressed  themselves  to  the 
task  of  defeating  the  adoption  by  the  town  of  the  proposed  char- 
ter. Their  chief  contention  was  that  a  single  legislative  board 
in  the  city  government  was  sufficient.  According  to  their  view, 
the  establishment  of  two  co-ordinate  bodies  was  likely  to  engen- 
der ineffectiveness,  jealousy,  and  compromises.  They  maintained 
that  most  of  the  existing  evils,  which  made  desirable  the  change 


THE  CHANGE  FROM  TOWN  TO  CITY  71 

to  a  city,  could  be  traced  to  the  divided  responsibility  for  cor- 
porate action  between  two  co-ordinate  bodies,  the  town  and  the 
fire  district,  and  the  numerous  officials  of  each,  who,  having  no 
common  purpose,  acted  independently  and  often  antagonistically; 
and  they  reasoned  that  any  dual  government  of  a  small  munici- 
pality was  liable  to  similar  defects.  They  would  have  simplified 
the  municipal  government,  given  more  power  to  the  mayor,  and 
curtailed  the  duties  of  the  board  of  public  works,  while  with  loyal 
affection  they  still  clung  to  the  principle  of  elections  at  large. 
Several  of  these  opponents  of  the  charter  were  strategically  in  a 
position  of  disadvantage.  For  nearly  twenty  years  they  had 
persistently  advocated  the  change  from  town  to  city,  and  now, 
when  for  the  first  time  the  change  was  possible,  they  were  as 
persistently  endeavoring  to  postpone  it.  Moreover,  they  were 
of  the  Democratic  party;  the  normal  Democratic  majority  in 
the  town  was  then  supposed  to  be  about  three  hundred;  and 
every  Democrat  who  favored  city  elections  at  large  was  of  course 
open  to  the  imputation  of  trying  to  entrench  his  party  securely 
in  the  city  council. 

It  was  long  "after  haying  time"  when  the  selectmen  sub- 
mitted the  charter  to  the  decision  of  the  people.  The  day  chosen 
was  February  eleventh,  1890.  At  the  town  hall,  the  polls  were 
open  for  eight  hours.  The  majority  for  the  charter  was  146,  the 
figures  being  932  in  favor,  and  786  opposed.  About  one-half  of 
the  registered  voters  cast  ballots. 

There  had  been  avowed  suspicion  of  political  and  partisan 
manipulation  of  the  electorate,  but  analysis  of  the  balloting 
showed  that  any  attempts,  which  might  have  been  made  to 
control  a  party  vote  on  the  question,  had  been  futile.  Close  ob- 
servers declared,  without  contradiction,  that  nearly  as  many 
Democrats  as  Republicans  voted  for  the  charter,  and  that  a  large 
number  of  Republicans  voted  against  it.  Because  of  the  non- 
partisan character  of  the  final  decision,  the  town  was  disposed 
to  congratulate  itself.  But  that  one-half  of  the  voters  stayed 
away  from  the  town  hall  was  with  reason  held  not  to  be  a  subject 
for  felicitation.  It  was  surmised,  and  doubtless  correctly,  that 
the  majority  of  the  absentees  were  in  accord  with  the  majority 
of  those  who  went  to  the  polls,  so  strong  and  general  was  the 


72  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

desire  for  a  city  government.  The  fact  remains,  however,  that 
the  new  city  was  incorporated  under  a  charter  which  had  ob- 
tained the  formal  approval  of  only  a  little  more  than  one-quarter 
of  the  voting  population.  In  this  respect  the  auspices  were  not 
favorable,  and  it  was  a  misfortune  that  the  new  form  of  govern- 
ment had  not  been  able  to  command  the  recorded  support  of 
more  of  the  citizens  of  the  town. 

The  city  charter  occasioned  several  somewhat  perplexing 
questions  of  legal  construction.  It  provided,  for  example,  that 
it  should  become  effective  upon  its  acceptance;  and  it  specified 
dates,  the  first  Tuesday  in  December  and  the  first  Monday  of  the 
following  January,  for  the  election  and  the  installation  respec- 
tively of  the  members  of  the  city  government.  The  charter 
had  been  accepted  in  February.  Pittsfield  had  then  ceased 
technically  to  be  a  town,  although  eleven  months  must  elapse 
before  the  inauguration  of  a  mayor  and  council.  The  charter, 
of  course,  stipulated  that  existing  town  and  fire  district  authori- 
ties should  continue  their  functions  during  such  an  interregnum. 
But  the  official  terms  of  most  of  the  town  and  fire  district  officers 
would  expire  in  April.  Was  it  proper  that  they  should  continue 
in  office,  de  facto,  until  January,  1891?  If  not,  could  Pittsfield, 
being  no  longer  a  town,  lawfully  elect  town  officers?  With- 
out bringing  this  question  to  a  direct  issue,  the  dilemma  was  evad- 
ed by  the  re-election  of  the  existing  town  and  fire  district 
officers  at  the  annual  April  meetings  in  1890. 

Pittsfield's  last  regular  town  meeting  was  held  on  Monday, 
April  seventh,  1890,  and  appropriately  at  the  historic  town  hall, 
although  on  the  following  day  it  was  adjourned  to  the  Coliseum 
on  North  Street.  The  moderator  was  Joseph  Tucker.  The  last 
board  of  selectmen  was  composed  of  William  F.  Harrington, 
George  Y.  Learned,  and  Eugene  H.  Robbins;  and  others  who 
served  the  town  during  its  final  year  were  William  M.  Clark, 
Thomas  E.  Hall,  and  Gilbert  West  as  assessors,  Frederick  H. 
Printiss  as  town  clerk,  Edward  McA.  Learned  as  collector  of 
taxes,  Erwin  H.  Kennedy  as  town  treasurer,  and  Israel  F.  Ches- 
iey,  William  M.  Mercer,  Rev.  William  W.  Newton,  John  C. 
Crosby,  Peter  P.  Curtin,  William  W.  Gamwell,  Harlan  H.  Bal- 
lard, Max  Rosenthal,  and  Ralph  B.  Bardwell  as  members  of  the 


THE  CHANGE  FROM  TOWN  TO  CITY  73 

school  committee.  At  the  last  regular  meeting  of  the  Pittsfield 
fire  district,  William  W.  Whiting  presided.  The  last  principal 
officials,  who  transferred  the  affairs  of  the  district  to  the  city, 
were  George  W.  Branch,  who  was  chief  engineer  of  the  fire  de- 
partment; Michael  Casey,  S.  N.  Russell,  and  Gilbert  West,  who 
were  the  prudential  committee;  F.  W.  Hinsdale,  Charles  E. 
Merrill,  and  C.  T.  Rathbun,  commissioners  of  main  drains  and 
sidewalks;  and  E.  N.  Robbins,  W.  R.  Plunkett,  and  John  Feeley, 
who  were  water  commissioners. 

The  board  of  selectmen  divided  the  township  into  seven 
wards;  and  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year  Pittsfield  proceeded  to 
consider  the  personal  composition  of  its  first  city  government. 
The  importance  of  a  worthy  selection  Vv^as  generally  recognized. 
A  healthful  disposition  was  manifested  by  the  leaders  of  the 
political  parties  to  make  the  first  city  administration  as  strong 
and  efficient  as  possible;  the  newspapers  urged  the  nomination 
of  the  most  capable  men  who  were  willing  to  undertake  the  per- 
formance of  official  duty.  In  this  spirit  of  civic  patriotism  was 
alleviated  some  of  the  dissatisfaction  undeniably  provoked  by 
the  acceptance  of  a  charter  in  a  form  which  did  not  enlist  the 
approval  of  a  large  minority. 

For  mayor,  the  Republicans  in  caucus  nominated  Andrew  J. 
Waterman,  and  the  Democrats,  Charles  E.  Hibbard.  Both  of 
the  candidates  were  lawyers  of  distinguished  experience.  Neither 
of  them  had  ever  been  officially  connected  with  the  town  govern- 
ment, and  their  supporters  pressed  their  claims  without  factional 
animosity  or  unfairness.  The  election,  held  on  December  sec- 
ond, 1890,  resulted  in  the  choice  of  Mr.  Hibbard  as  the  first 
mayor  of  the  city.  The  first  aldermen  were  Peter  P.  Curtin, 
Andrew  J.  White,  Jabez  L.  Peck,  David  A.  Clary,  Charles  I. 
Lincoln,  Edward  Cain,  and  C.  C.  Wright.  The  councilmen 
chosen  were  John  Churchill,  David  Rosenhein,  John  J.  Bastion, 
D.  C.  Maclnnes,  John  M.  Lee,  George  W.  Smith,  Edward  T. 
Slocum,  Joseph  Foote,  George  T.  Denny,  H.  W.  Chapman,  E.  B. 
Mead,  John  R.  Feeley,  E.  B.  Wilson,  and  E.  T.  Lawrence.  It 
is  noticeable  that,  with  a  single  exception,  no  member  of  the 
first  city  government  had  served  in  the  final  administration  of 
the  town   and   fire   district  governments.     According   to   strict 


74  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

party  lines,  the  Republicans  on  joint  ballot  might  command  a 
majority  of  one  vote. 

The  plans  for  the  inaugural  ceremonies  of  the  new  govern- 
ment were  made  by  a  committee  appointed  by  a  citizens'  meet- 
ing, which  named  for  this  purpose  Morris  Schaff,  William  L. 
Adam,  Joseph  Tucker,  William  R.  Plunkett,  and  William  W. 
Whiting.  This  committee  increased  its  membership  to  twenty- 
five  and  chose  Joseph  Tucker  to  be  its  chairman.  The  place  of 
the  inauguration  was  the  Academy  of  Music.  For  the  occasion, 
the  auditorium  was  decorated  elaborately,  but  with  dignity; 
portraits  of  men  who  had  served  the  town  reliably  and  often  in 
the  distant  past  were  conspicuously  displayed;  and  the  as- 
semblage which  filled  the  hall  to  overflowing  in  the  forenoon  of 
Monday,  January  fifth,  1891,  was  affected  at  once  by  its  environ- 
ment. 

The  suggestion  from  things  seen,  however,  was  not  in  the 
least  needed  to  stir  in  the  people  a  deep  sense  of  the  significance 
of  the  event  which  they  had  gathered  to  witness.  To  many 
men  the  passing  of  the  town  v/as  like  the  inevitable  departure, 
in  the  fullness  of  years  and  honor,  of  a  venerated  friend.  The 
necessary  end  of  the  old  order  was  charged  for  them  with  solem- 
nity and  with  regret.  It  closed  definitely  a  chapter  of  their 
memories.  They  recalled  with  pride  and  fondness  the  story  of 
the  town  of  Pittsfield,  of  the  sturdy  democracy  of  her  self- 
government,  of  the  loyal  efforts  in  her  behalf  to  which  she  had 
been  able  to  inspire  her  sons. 

The  impressive  inaugural  proceedings  in  the  Academy  were 
characterized  by  earnestness  and  simplicity.  Joseph  Tucker 
presided.  In  appropriate  recognition  of  the  identity  of  the 
town  and  the  First  Parish,  in  their  early  days.  Rev.  J.  L.  Jenkins 
was  selected  to  offer  prayer.  The  brief  speech  of  the  chairman 
sounded  a  significant  note  of  warning.  "This  ancient  town" 
said  he,  in  the  course  of  his  remarks,  "is  passing  away;  sorrow- 
fully we  await  its  last  moments.  When  they  come,  let  us  cry, 
witii  loud  acclaim,  long  live  the  city  of  Pittsfield.  But  I  beg  of 
you  to  remember  that  the  history  of  American  cities  is  not  sav- 
ory, and  that  only  in  those  where  all  the  people  take  a  lively  in- 
terest in  their  welfare,  and  resolutely  keep  them  free  from  na- 
tional politics,  is  a  such  a  government  a  blessing". 


THE  CHANGE  FROM  TOWN  TO  CITY  75 

An  address,  long  remembered  by  its  hearers  for  its  force  and 
grace,  was  delivered  by  James  M.  Barker.  "We  are  at  home", 
he  began.  "We  meet  under  happy  auspices.  We  come  with 
proud  memories,  high  hopes,  and  with  an  inspiring  purpose". 
The  honorable  record  of  Pittsfield  was  eloquently  reviewed;  and 
toward  the  conclusion  of  his  address  the  speaker  said: 

"We  come  then,  as  we  have  the  right,  recounting  the  glories 
and  virtues  of  the  town.  In  our  homes  are  peace  and  plenty. 
In  our  midst  have  long  dwelt  religion  and  education.  Here  are 
thrift  and  industry  and  prosperity.  Here  are  noble,  beneficent 
institutions,  well  founded,  well  tried,  doing  good  work.  Here 
are  cheer  and  friendliness  and  good  manners.  Here  have  been 
shown  bright  examples  of  patriotism,  of  loyalty,  and  of  devotion 
to  the  welfare  of  man.  Here,  today,  is  a  people  proud  of  the 
past,  but  filled  with  high  ambition  for  the  future.  For  ourselves 
and  for  our  successors,  we  demand  with  confident  expectation 
yet  more  and  finer  things.  Each  proud  memory,  each  glory  won, 
each  blessing  of  today,  is  but  the  force,  which,  rightly  used,  shall 
raise  us  higher,  make  us  better,  richer 

"This  is  the  lesson  of  the  hour — that  this  community,  hitherto 
well  ordered  and  governed  by  itself,  shall  henceforth  be  well  and 
faithfully  served  by  those  to  whom  its  government  is  now  to  be 
entrusted.  That  each  shall  bear  in  mind,  for  his  inspiration  and 
guidance,  the  fair  story  of  the  past,  shall  realize  the  priceless 
value  of  his  trust,  and  in  every  act  and  thought  be  loyal  to  the 
common  weal. 

"Mr.  Mayor,  and  you,  honored  aldermen  and  councilmen 
of  the  new  city,  it  is  because  we  believe  that  you  have  accepted 
service  in  this  spirit,  and  will  thus  perform  it,  that  you  have  been 
chosen  to  this  new  government.  We  are  willing  to  commemorate 
this  day  because  of  our  confidence  that  you  and  your  successors 
will  do  well.  That  in  your  care  and  keeping  the  honor  and  wel- 
fare of  the  community  are  safe That  here  shall 

ever  be  found  a  place  beautiful  by  nature,  made  finer  and  better 
by  your  adornment — a  people  ever  wiser,  better,  happier,  more 
prosperous. 

"This  lesson  is  impersonal.  It  comes  not  from  us,  nor  from 
those  who  have  deputed  us.  It  is  the  voice,  the  plea  to  you  and 
your  successors  of  all  those,  the  dead,  the  living,  those  yet  to 
live,  identified  with  this  community — nor  of  them  alone — but  of 
all  those  fine  ideas  and  forces  which  are  part  of  that  which  has 
been  known  as  Pittsfield". 

The  orator,  himself  a  frequent,  capable,  and  loving  servant 
of  the  old  town,  delivered  the  valedictory  with  quiet  emotion; 


76  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

and  of  this  there  was  do  lack  in  his  soberly  minded  and  sympa- 
thetic auditors,  for  whom  he  seemed  to  be  a  spokesman  rather 
than  a  protagonist.  The  oath  of  office  to  the  first  mayor  was 
then  administered  by  Henry  W.  Taft,  clerk  of  the  Superior  Court. 
Mr.  Hibbard's  inaugural  address  was  attuned  to  the  same  chord 
of  courageous  hopefulness  which  had  vibrated  throughout  Judge 
Barker's  farewell  to  the  town.  Said  the  mayor:  "The  record  of 
the  town  of  Pittsfield,  just  closed,  is  secure,  the  record  of  the  City 
of  Pittsfield  is  yet  to  be  made.  A  record  as  distinguished  and 
brilliant  we  are  not  justified  in  expecting,  but  a  record  no  less 
honorable  is  possible,  if  we  will  but  carry  into  the  new  system  of 
local  self-government  the  spirit  of  the  old;  if  our  public  servants 
shall  be  animated  by  the  same  exalted  purposes,  the  same  honor- 
able ambitions,  the  same  devotion  to  duty  and  to  the  best  inter- 
ests of  the  city  as  were  their  predecessors,  and  if  all  our  citizens 
shall  unite  in  maintaining  the  same  high  standards  of  citizenship, 
which  the  fathers  established  and  maintained." 

Then  followed  Mr.  Hibbard's  compact  and  perspicuous  state- 
ment of  municipal  assets,  needs,  and  problems;  and  before  his 
attentive  auditors  left  the  theater  one  advantage,  at  least,  of 
their  new  form  of  government  had  been  made  apparent  to  them. 
Under  the  town  system,  it  had  been  nobody's  particular  business 
to  inform  all  of  the  voters,  comprehensively  and  with  authority, 
of  public  concerns.  The  printed  reports  of  the  various  inde- 
pendent officials  of  the  town  and  fire  district  had  never  been  an- 
nually consolidated,  and  often  they  had  been  fragmentary  and 
ill-arranged  by  men  inexperienced  in  the  expressive  marshaling 
of  facts  and  figures.  The  oral  information,  given  by  them  in 
town  meeting,  was  customarily  that  merely  which  was  elicited 
by  debate  or  by  such  questions  as  might  happen  to  be  asked. 
The  lucid  inaugural  address,  therefore,  of  the  first  mayor  opened 
the  eyes  of  many  persons;  it  is  probable  that  scores  of  people  in 
the  hall  had  never  before  realized  completely  the  full  extent  of 
the  public  activities,  their  interrelation,  and  their  demands. 

The  beneficial  effect  of  the  inaugural  exercises  upon  the 
community  spirit  was  far  more  profound  than  that  usually 
produced  by  such  ceremonies.  Whether  by  accident  or  by  de- 
sign, they  reconciled  and  encouraged  those  who   had   been   dis- 


THE  CHANGE  FROM  TOWN  TO  CITY  77 

turbed  and,  in  some  cases,  disheartened  by  the  agitation  incident 
to  the  acceptance  of  the  charter  and  by  the  uncertain  prospect 
of  the  new  government.  The  high  moral  tone,  which  marked 
the  proceedings,  gratified  everybody,  and  was  rightfully  deemed 
significant.  Not  only  had  sentiments  of  reminiscence  and  civic 
aspiration  been  adequately  voiced  and  responsively  greeted; 
but  also  the  practical,  workaday,  common  sense  of  the  citizens 
had  been  satisfied  by  a  business-like  and  comprehensive  report 
of  their  affairs.     The  baptism  of  the  city  was  propitious. 

It  remained  to  add  the  proper  note  of  social  congratulation, 
and  in  the  evening  of  the  same  day  a  public  inaugural  ball  was 
the  event  at  the  Academy  of  Music.  The  city,  through  a  com- 
mittee of  which  William  G.  Backus  was  chairman,  conducted  its 
first  family  party  on  a  large  and  hospitable  scale.  Those  who 
attended  it  are  fond  of  recalling  the  way  in  which  it  appropriately 
blended  old  and  new  fashions  of  enjoyment,  as  if  to  suggest  the 
merging  of  an  ancient  town  and  a  modern  municipality.  The 
then  modish  waltz  and  polka  alternated  with  the  square  dances 
of  village  times;  Captain  Israel  C.  Weller,  of  genial  memory,  was 
persuaded  to  call  off,  in  rural  style,  the  figures  of  a  quadrille; 
supper  was  served  at  the  American  House  across  the  street; 
and  festivity  reigned. 


CHAPTER  VI 
PHASES  OF  THE  CITY'S  GROWTH 

THE  assumption  by  Pittsfield  of  the  title  of  city  had  some- 
what the  same  subjective  effect  which  had  been  exerted 
upon  local  pride  twenty  years  before  by  the  establishment 
of  the  town  as  the  county  seat;  for  it  was  vaguely  believed  by 
many  good  citizens  in  1891,  quite  as  it  had  been  in  1871,  that  the 
possession  of  a  more  sounding  title  assured  the  possession  of  a 
more  accelerated  welfare.  Indeed,  if  one  is  so  fancifully  minded 
as  to  push  the  analogy  between  the  two  events  in  another  direc- 
tion, his  whimsical  curiosity  may  be  rewarded.  The  establish- 
ment of  Pittsfield  as  the  county  seat  was  preceded  by  a  period  of 
great  prosperity,  and  it  chanced  to  be  followed  by  hard  times; 
while  the  final  years  of  the  town  were  those  of  industrial  buoy- 
ancy, and  the  new  city  was  soon  to  be  confronted  by  the  general 
business  depression  throughout  the  country  of  the  early  nineties 
of  the  last  century. 

Part  of  a  paper  read  in  Pittsfield  in  1870  before  the  Monday 
Evening  Club  is  here  relevant.  The  paper  was  a  protest  against 
the  idea  that  prosperity  was  attainable  without  effort,  and 
through  the  decrees  either  of  fortune  or  of  the  legislature  in  Bos- 
ton. "The  future  growth  of  Pittsfield",  declared  the  writer, 
"will  in  a  great  measure  depend  upon  the  increase  of  those  manu- 
facturing and  mechanical  employments  not  requiring  much  water 
power.  One  large  factory  would  do  more  for  the  permanent 
prosperity  of  this  town  than  our  new  court  house."  It  was  pre- 
cisely along  these  lines  that  the  welfare  of  the  town  was  develop- 
ing in  1891 ;  and  the  possession  of  the  title  of  city  had  little  direct 
bearing  upon  that  welfare. 

In  the  history  of  Pittsfield  for  the  quarter-century  after  1890, 
the  essential  fact  was  not  its  new  form  of  government,  but  its 
material  growth,  due  in  chief  to  the  development  of  non-textile 


PHASES  OF  THE  CITY'S  GROWTH  79 

manufacturing,  and  especially  of  the  manufacturing  of  electrical 
appliances.  The  twenty-five  years  after  1890  saw  the  popula- 
tion increase  from  17,252  to  39,607,  and  the  number  of  dwellings 
from  2,735  to  6,022. 

This  rapid  rate  of  gain  is  by  no  means  remarkable  in  the 
history  of  our  younger  American  cities,  but  in  the  individual  case 
of  Pittsfield  it  was  surprising.  Pittsfield,  for  one  hundred  years 
prior  to  1890,  had  been  a  thriving  town,  according  to  the  New 
England  standard.  The  civic  mind  had  become  accustomed  to  a 
certain  easy  rate  of  increase  in  population.  The  average  rate  of 
increase  for  each  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  about 
twenty-five  per  cent.,  although  the  percentage  of  gain  was  fifty- 
six  between  1840  and  1850,  when  railroad  connections  were  first 
established.  For  the  decade  ending  in  1910,  the  rate  of  increase 
was  forty-seven  per  cent.,  and  larger  than  that  of  any  other  city 
in  Massachusetts,  except  New  Bedford.  The  growth  of  the 
property  resources  was  even  more  marked  and  precipitate. 
The  federal  census  authorities  stated  the  value  of  the  city's 
manufactured  products  to  be  $5,753,546  in  1899  and  $15,215,202 
in  1909. 

If  it  is  possible  to  conceive  a  civic  mind,  it  is  possible  also  to 
imagine  that  Pittsfield  rubbed  her  civic  eyes,  habituated  to  gaze 
placidly  at  the  slower  and  more  sober  thrift  of  a  Yankee  village. 

Another  element  of  singularity  in  Pittsfield's  abrupt  growth 
lies  in  the  fact  that  this  growth  brought  suddenly  into  relations 
with  industrial  and  financial  centers  a  community  which  had 
long  been  sturdily  self-reliant,  if  not  self-satisfied.  He  has  con- 
sidered the  earlier  story  of  Berkshire  to  little  avail  who  has  not 
noted  the  effect  of  the  isolation  of  its  highlands  upon  the  moral 
and  political  independence  of  its  people,  from  the  old  days  when 
Parson  Allen  and  the  Pittsfield  selectmen  so  zealously  lectured 
the  governor  of  the  Commonwealth  and  the  lawmakers  at  Bos- 
ton. In  a  not  dissimilar  way,  nature  had  wrought  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  county's  manufacturing  enterprises.  Between 
the  palisades  of  the  hills,  the  Berkshire  mill  owners  had  found  a 
suflScient  working  capital  in  the  power  of  the  mountain  streams; 
and,  for  nearly  a  century,  no  considerable  amount  of  money 
from  abroad  had  sought  investment  in  Pittsfield.     Unaffected 


80  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

by  the  proximity  of  any  large  commercial  metropolis,  the  town 
had  been  trained  to  rely  chiefly  upon  itself,  to  initiate  its  own 
plans,  and  to  carry  them  forward  with  its  own  resources.  About 
the  year  1891,  this  state  of  things  began  to  be  altered;  and  the 
change  was  violently  contrary  to  the  long  experience  of  an  es- 
pecially self-contented  community. 

It  is  peculiar  that  the  industrial  growth  of  Pittsfield  at  this 
period  should  have  been  accompanied  by  increased  evidence  of 
the  attractive  power  of  the  place  upon  the  vacation  traveler  and 
the  metropolitan  searcher  for  a  summer  home.  Holiday-makers 
do  not  usually  linger  where  factory  wheels  are  busy.  Pittsfield 
was  fortunate  in  that  its  factory  Vv'heels  were  both  busy  and  un- 
obtrusive. The  residential  portions  of  the  city  remained  un- 
vexed  by  the  clang  of  machinery;  the  beauty  of  its  surrounding 
uplands  was  not  disturbed;  and,  with  the  exception,  to  the  east, 
of  the  Hatter's  Pond  of  former  days,  its  jeweled  lakes  retained 
their  rural  loveliness.  The  city  was  therefore  enabled  still  to 
share  substantially  in  the  growth  of  Berkshire's  popularity  as  a 
summer  resort.  In  Pittsfield,  however,  more  often  than  in  the 
other  towns  of  the  county,  the  casual  visitor  became  the  perma- 
nent resident,  cultivated  the  city's  increasing  opportunities  of 
business,  and  added  to  the  enjoyment  and  value  of  its  social  life. 
The  number  of  those  attracted  to  Berkshire  by  the  fame  of 
its  highland  scenery  was  at  this  time  augmented  by  the  im- 
provement of  facilities  of  travel  over  its  picturesque  roads. 
Cars  propelled  by  electricity  through  the  medium  of  an  overhead 
wire  were  first  used  in  Pittsfield  in  1891.  A  strong  disagreement 
among  the  stockholders  of  the  Pittsfield  Street  Railway  Com- 
pany had  so  confused  the  affairs  of  the  corporation  that  in  1890 
it  was  dissolved,  and  a  new  company  was  organized,  called  the 
Pittsfield  Electric  Street  Railway  Company.  This  corporation, 
of  which  Joseph  Tucker  was  the  president,  acquired  the  plant 
of  the  former  company,  equipped  the  line  for  the  use  of  electricity 
as  motive  power,  and  on  July  ninth,  1891,  began  to  run  trolley 
cars  from  Park  Square  to  Pontoosuc  Lake.  Upon  the  first  Sun- 
day of  operation,  3,700  passengers  were  carried.  The  experiment, 
nevertheless,  was  regarded  doubtfully  by  the  public,  because  the 
cars  ascended  grades  with  difiiculty;    and,  at  the  Benedict  hill. 


PHASES  OF  THE  CITY'S  GROWTH  81 

near  Pontoosuc,  they  often  declined  to  ascend  at  all.  Horse- 
drawn  cars  were  not  immediately  abandoned  by  the  managers 
of  the  enterprise.  Naturally  enough,  the  lay  opinion  was  that 
trolley  ears,  however  practicable  they  might  be  on  city  streets  or 
in  a  level  country,  could  never  prove  to  be  of  much  utility  among 
the  hills  of  Berkshire. 

In  1892,  a  large  part  of  the  stock  of  the  company  was  pur- 
chased by  Patrick  H.  and  Peter  C.  Dolan,  who  came  to  Pittsfield 
from  New  Britain,  Connecticut,  and  assumed  the  active  direction 
of  the  road.  Within  eleven  years  from  1893,  the  line  was  ex- 
tended east  to  Dalton  and  Hinsdale,  south  to  the  foot  of  South 
Mountain,  west  to  West  Pittsfield,  northwest  to  Lake  Avenue, 
and  north  to  Cheshire.  The  Berkshire  Street  Railway  Company, 
an  energetic  and  resourceful  corporation  keenly  promoted  by 
Ralph  D.  Gillett  of  Westfield,  and  supported  by  several  local 
shareholders,  began  in  1902  to  operate  a  line  north  and  south 
through  the  county,  which  traversed  the  eastern  part  of  Pittsfield 
and  connected  with  the  business  center  through  East  Street. 
In  1915,  there  were  twenty-five  miles  of  trolley  car  tracks  within 
the  city  limits.  In  1910,  the  capital  stock  of  the  older  corpora- 
tion was  sold  to  a  holding  company,  and  the  control  of  both 
roads  passed  to  the  New  York,  New  Haven  and  Hartford  Rail- 
road   Company. 

The  builders  of  these  lines  and  extensions  met,  especially 
from  the  residents  on  South  and  East  Streets,  the  lively  opposi- 
tion which  at  that  time  was  usual  in  similar  cases  the  country 
over;  and  they  accomplished  for  the  community  the  benefit  as 
usual  and  inevitable.  Less  ordinary  in  its  results  was  the  local 
rivalry  between  the  two  railway  companies,  in  which  the  general 
public  participated  to  an  exceptional  degree,  so  that  ill-considered 
charges  flew  wildly  back  and  forth.  The  rancor  of  the  so-called 
"trolley  war"  disturbed  Pittsfield  for  several  years;  and  the 
final  absorption  of  the  roads  by  one  management  was  welcomed 
by  many  pacific  citizens. 

The  wide  vogue  of  the  automobile,  which  began  to  prevail 
in  the  United  States  during  the  first  decade  of  the  century,  was 
also  a  factor  of  no  slight  importance  in  the  growth  and  prosperity 
of  Pittsfield  at  that  time.     The  county  of  Berkshire  became  a 


82  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

favorite  touring  district  for  motor  cars.  The  travelers  by  auto- 
mobile, of  whom  90,000  were  roughly  estimated  in  1915  to  have 
visited  Pittsfield  from  April  to  November,  not  only  profited  the 
local  merchants  and  the  local  hotel-keepers,  but  made  both  the 
social  and  commercial  atmosphere  of  the  city  more  cosmopolitan. 
It  happened  fortunately  that  the  public  accommodations  of  the 
city  were  already  prepared  to  take  care  of  this  benevolent  inva- 
sion. In  this  instance  Pittsfield  was  forehanded.  Its  equip- 
ment of  hotels  had  been  made,  for  the  first  time  in  many  years, 
thoroughly  adequate.  The  Maplewood  had  been  enlarged. 
The  American  House  was  replaced  by  a  new  hotel  bearing  the 
same  name  in  1899;  and  in  the  previous  year  Samuel  W.  Bower- 
man,  son  of  the  former  owner  of  the  property,  razed  the  ancient 
building  on  the  corner  of  South  and  West  Streets,  and  erected 
and  opened  the  Hotel  Wendell. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  city  was  by  no  means  prepared  for 
the  housing  of  its  increased  permanent  population  between  1900 
and  1910;  and  this  matter  soon  assumed  the  proportions  of  a 
serious  problem.  Local  owners  of  residential  real  estate  were 
accustomed  to  move  with  deliberation.  A  "land  boom"  was 
not  within  their  experience,  and  they  regarded  symptoms  of  it 
warily.  The  expansion  of  dwelling  facilities  did  not  for  several 
years  keep  pace  with  the  need  for  them.  Outside  capital,  here 
as  elsewhere,  seized  its  legitimate  opportunity.  In  1905  the 
scarcity  of  tenements  first  became  noticeable.  The  building 
development  thereafter  was  chiefly  toward  the  northeast,  where, 
in  the  wooded  Morningside  section,  the  occupancy  of  house  lots 
had  begun  markedly  to  increase  about  1895. 

The  city's  annual  building  record,  inclusive  of  the  cost  of 
buildings  for  all  purposes,  first  touched  one  million  dollars  in 
1906.     Four  years  later,  it  more  than  doubled  that  amount. 

A  considerable  part  of  this  expenditure  was  due  to  the  erec- 
tion of  the  great  factories,  north  and  east  of  Silver  Lake,  of  the 
General  Electric  Company  of  Schenectady,  New  York,  which 
in  1903  purchased  the  stock  and  plant  of  the  Stanley  Electric 
Manufacturing  Company.  To  narrate  with  detail  the  extraor- 
dinary development  of  this  enterprise  is  not  within  the  province 
of  the  present  chapter;    nevertheless,  no  account,  not  even  a 


PHASES  OF  THE  CITY'S  GROWTH  83 

general  one,  of  the  first  quarter-century  of  the  city's  existence 
can  well  be  attempted,  or  understood,  without  some  account 
also  of  the  company's  existence,  so  important  was  their  interre- 
lation and  so  curiously  coincident  in  point  of  time  were  their 
beginnings.  The  city  of  Pittsfield  began  its  course  in  January, 
1891,  and  in  the  following  April  the  Stanley  Company  made  its 
first  shipment  of  machinery. 

Sixteen  hands  were  then  employed  in  the  manufacture  of 
electrical  transformers  on  Clapp  Avenue.  Twenty  years  later, 
the  establishment  initiated  by  William  Stanley  employed  over 
5,000  people,  and  its  shops,  in  the  vicinity  of  Silver  Lake  and 
Morningside,  covered  fifty  acres.  Not  only  did  the  early  pros- 
perity of  the  company  augment  the  material  welfare  of  Pittsfield, 
but  also  it  was  of  a  nature  to  energize  unusually  the  popular 
spirit.  It  represented  an  industry  which  was  at  the  time  novel 
and  strange,  and  of  which  the  mysterious  possibilities  defied  calcu- 
lation. Few  cities  in  the  world,  between  1890  and  1895,  possessed 
a  manufactory  of  the  same  sort.  Its  very  presence  in  Pitts- 
field seemed  to  signify  that  the  community  was  awake,  expansive, 
ultra-modern.  The  daily  evidence  of  its  early  success  kindled 
optimism  regarding  the  future  of  the  city  as  a  whole. 

With  a  few  exceptions,  the  incorporators  and  original  share- 
holders of  the  Stanley  Company  were  Pittsfield  men,  who  put 
their  money  into  the  modest  venture  of  1890  rather  because  of 
public  spirit  than  because  of  expectation  of  large  profits.  Upon 
its  successive  directorates,  during  the  first  decade  of  its  develop- 
ment, were  Charles  Atwater,  William  R.  Plunkett,  Walter  F. 
Hawkins,  George  H.  Tucker,  William  Stanley,  Charles  E.  Hib- 
bard,  Henry  Hine,  George  W.  Bailey,  W.  A.  Whittlesey,  Henry 
C.  Clark,  and  William  W.  Gamwell.  The  active  supervision  of 
its  finances  and  commercial  relations  was  consigned  to  Mr.  Gam- 
well,  who  was  chosen  president  after  Mr.  Atwater  resigned  in 
1893.  Mr.  Gamwell  served  at  times  as  treasurer,  and  Mr.  Bailey 
and  Mr.  Whittlesey  also  held  the  same  position.  The  financial 
guidance  of  the  company,  between  1890  and  1900,  being  thus 
mainly  in  the  hands  of  Pittsfield  citizens,  its  immediate  success 
peculiarly  gratified  local  sentiment;  and  Pittsfield's  self-confi- 
dence was  stimulated  by  the  fact  that  the  community,  through 


84  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

its  own  business  men,  was  able  to  take  such  profitable  advantage 
of  an  industrial  field  then  new  and  commercially  hazardous. 

Moreover,  in  attempting  an  estimate  of  the  early  value  to 
the  city  of  the  Stanley  Company,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that 
the  character  and  circumstances  of  the  enterprise  attracted  to 
Pittsfield,  as  residents,  men  of  especial  mental  alertness  and 
breadth  of  mental  vision.  They  widened  the  social,  as  well  as 
the  industrial,  horizon  of  the  city.  The  mechanics  and  laborers 
in  the  shops  were  necessarily  intelligent  as  well  as  active.  The 
company's  powerful  and  more  wealthy  rivals  enforced  at  head- 
quarters a  general  management  of  especially  vigilant  and  far- 
sighted  shrewdness.  Apart  from  the  company  proper,  the 
brilliant  and  ambitious  electricians,  who  worked  with  Mr.  Stan- 
ley in  his  laboratory,  typified  a  high  grade  of  scientific  talent  in 
their  young  profession.  Indeed,  the  zest  and  venturesome  energy 
of  youth  seemed  to  inspire  the  entire  undertaking.  William 
Stanley,  whose  tireless  inventive  genius  leavened  it,  was  only 
thirty-two  years  old  at  the  date  of  its  inception. 

The  most  conspicuous  effect  which  textile  manufacturing 
had  at  this  period  upon  the  growth  of  Pittsfield  was  accomplished 
through  the  development  of  the  mills  of  the  W.  E.  Tillotson 
Manufacturing  Company  near  Silver  Lake.  After  1901  their 
capacity  was  so  increased  that  eventually  the  operations  of 
weaving,  spinning,  and  knitting,  gave  employment  to  about  600 
people.  Leaving  aside  the  Stanley  Electric  Manufacturing 
Company,  non-textile  manufacturers  contributed  to  the  city's 
gain  notably  through  the  medium  of  the  Eaton,  Crane,  and  Pike 
Company's  activities.  This  establishment,  a  manufactory  of 
stationery,  began  its  unusually  successful  career  in  Pittsfield  in 
1893,  then  employing  thirty  operatives.  In  1915,  more  than 
1,000  operatives  were  employed  in  the  large  and  busy  shops 
extended  from  the  building  formerly  occupied  by  the  Terry 
Clock  Company  on  South  Church  Street,  with  two  auxiliary 
plants. 

These  industrial  factors  of  growth,  combined  with  others  of 
less  magnitude  but  of  no  less  energy,  produced  in  the  Pittsfield 
of  1891  to  1916  a  general  state  of  domestic  effort,  almost  of 
strain.     To  keep  pace  with  this  expansion  taxed  the  energies,  the 


PHASES  OF  THE  CITY'S  GROWTH  85 

capital,  and  the  character  of  the  city.  In  this  respect  Pittsfield 
singularly  reflected  the  condition  of  the  Republic  during  the 
same  era,  an  era  wherein  the  capability  of  its  self-government, 
and  of  its  financial,  educational,  and  social  systems,  was  tried 
severely  by  the  growth  of  industry  and  population.  It  is  quite 
possible  to  find  in  the  experience  of  Pittsfield  at  this  period 
many  of  the  same  problems  of  readjustment,  in  miniature, 
which  confronted  the  United  States;  and  one  may  observe  an 
illustration  of  the  familiar  fact  that  often  the  history  of  an  indi- 
vidual community  closely  exemplifies  the  history  of  the  nation,  of 
which  it  is  a  diminutive  part. 

The  number  of  the  financial  institutions  in  the  city  was  re- 
inforced in  1895  by  the  establishment  of  the  Berkshire  Loan  and 
Trust  Company,  under  the  presidency  of  Franklin  K.  Paddock, 
and  in  1893  by  the  chartering  of  the  City  Savings  Bank,  of  which 
the  president  was  Francis  W.  Rockwell.  Two  co-operative 
banks  were  initiated,  the  Pittsfield  in  1889,  and  the  Union  in 
1911.  In  their  various  lines  of  service,  these  institutions  pros- 
pered, while  at  the  same  time  the  sound  prosperity  was 
strengthened  of  the  national  banks,  the  Agricultural,  the  Pitts- 
field, and  the  Third,  and  of  the  Berkshire  County  Savings  Bank. 
By  the  last  named,  the  city's  first  oflfice  building  on  a  modern 
scale  was  erected  in  1894,  at  the  corner  of  North  Street  and 
Park  Square. 

This  building,  which  necessitated  the  disappearance  of 
West's  block,  brought  about  the  earliest  change  in  the  appearance 
of  the  older  business  center  during  the  period  which  we  are  now 
surveying.  Other  noteworthy  changes  on  North  Street  were 
effected  by  the  construction  in  1908  of  the  Agricultural  Bank 
building,  between  Dunham  and  Fenn  Streets;  by  the  burning 
of  the  Academy  of  Music  in  1912  and  the  erection  on  its  site  of 
the  Miller  building;  and  by  the  destruction  by  fire  of  the  ancient 
Callender  block  on  the  west  side  of  lower  North  Street  in  1914. 
The  advance  of  business  structures  north  of  the  railroad  bridge 
was  constant  and  substantial.  In  1915,  North  Street  presented 
an  unbroken  front  of  blocks  on  the  east  side  as  far  as  St.  Joseph's 
Convent,  and  on  the  west  to  Bradford  Street,  while  north  of 
these  points  on  the  main  thoroughfare,  as  well  as  on  the  northerly 


86  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

cross  streets,  and  at  Morningside,  were  many  buildings  devoted 
to  mercantile  purposes.  Not  until  1900,  however,  did  upper 
North  Street  lose  its  most  obvious  relic  of  village  days,  a  rural 
blacksmith's  shop,  which  stood  at  the  head  of  Wahconah  Street 
on  a  portion  of  the  grounds  now  occupied  by  the  House  of  Mercy 
hospital. 

The  strain  of  the  city's  growth  was  felt  with  acuteness  by  all 
of  its  charitable  enterprises,  and  especially  by  the  House  of 
Mercy.  In  1890  the  number  of  charity  and  pay  patients  cared 
for  in  the  hospital  was  156,  in  1915  it  was  2,213.  In  1901,  the 
growth  of  the  institution  was  signalized  by  the  erection  of  a 
spacious  main  building  in  the  triangle  bounded  by  North  and 
Wahconah  Streets,  and  Russell  Terrace.  Again,  in  1908,  the 
establishment  of  Hillcrest  Hospital,  at  the  corner  of  North 
Street  and  Springside  Avenue,  added  substantially  to  the  equip- 
ment of  the  community  for  the  performance  of  charitable  hospital 
work. 

Altruistic  spirit  found  expression  also  during  this  period  in 
the  beginning  of  the  work  of  the  Visiting  Nurses'  Association, 
the  Anti-tuberculosis  Association,  and  the  Day  Nursery  Associa- 
tion. The  last  was  organized  by  Pittsfield  women  in  1905,  for 
the  purpose  of  providing  a  place  where  busy  mothers,  during 
their  working  hours,  might  have  little  children  cared  for.  Its 
first  president  was  Mrs.  William  H.  Eaton.  The  Visiting  Nurses' 
Association,  designed  to  supply  the  services  of  a  trained  nurse 
to  the  destitute  sick  in  their  homes,  was  instituted  in  1908,  under 
the  presidency  of  DeWitt  Bruce.  The  Pittsfield  Anti-tuberculosis 
Association,  of  which  the  first  ofiicial  head  was  Dr.  J.  F.  A. 
Adams,  was  formed  also  in  1908,  and  soon  thereafter  acquired  a 
farm  in  the  western  part  of  the  city,  where  a  sanitorium  was  es- 
tablished for  the  treatment  of  patients  afilicted  by  consumption. 
The  Associated  Charities,  organized  in  1911  with  Arthur  N. 
Cooley  as  president,  became  the  central,  supervising,  and  assist- 
ing agency  of  these  and  other  benevolent  activities,  and  in  1915 
absorbed  the  Union  for  Home  Work,  and  assumed  the  charitable 
functions  of  that  organization. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that,  during  the  first  twenty-five  years  of 
Pittsfield's  existence  as  a  city,  its  people  not  only  sustained  and 


PHASES  OF  THE  CITY'S  GROWTH  87 

developed  the  philanthropic  institutions  inherited  from  earlier 
days,  but  also  were  generally  responsive  to  new  and  growing 
needs. 

In  fact,  the  field  of  service  of  almost  every  public  institution 
in  the  city  was  broadened  so  rapidly  and  so  imperatively  during 
these  years  that  its  managers  were  seldom  out  of  danger  of  find- 
ing its  resources  inadequate.  Almost  every  public  and  semi- 
public  institution  in  the  city  was  conducted  under  an  abnormal, 
although  legitimate,  pressure  of  popular  demand.  At  the  public 
library  of  the  Berkshire  Athenaeum,  for  an  instance,  the  annual 
issue  of  books  advanced  from  30,000  to  100,000,  Those  who 
founded  the  Athenaeum  and  endowed  it  in  1875  could  not  have 
contemplated  growth  of  service  on  this  scale;  and  the  city,  follow- 
ing properly  the  fine  example  of  the  town,  sustained  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  burden  of  the  current  expenses  of  the  institution  by  a 
yearly  grant  from  the  harassed  municipal  treasury. 

A  similar  condition  of  laborious  endeavor  to  meet  demand 
was  evident  about  this  time  among  such  agencies  for  good  as  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  and  the  Father  Mathew 
Total  Abstinence  Society.  The  latter,  organized  in  1874  by  the 
men  of  St.  Joseph's  Church,  found  its  opportunities  so  extended 
in  1911  that  a  building  seemed  necessary  for  its  beneficent  work. 
In  that  year,  $47,000  was  raised  by  an  enthusiastic  popular  sub- 
scription; and  the  building  was  erected  on  Melville  Street. 
The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  was  established  in 
Pittsfield  in  1885.  In  1908  the  need  of  a  building  for  it  was  so 
generally  recognized  that  the  public  readily  contributed  $44,000, 
and  this,  added  to  a  large  fund  gathered  already  by  the  associa- 
tion, made  possible  the  erection  of  a  building  on  the  corner  of 
Melville  and  North  Streets. 

The  sphere  of  possible  usefulness  of  the  Boys'  Club  and  its 
vocational  schools,  modestly  initiated  in  1900,  became  enlarged 
so  obviously  in  1905  that  the  wise  munificence  of  Zenas  Crane 
of  Dalton  provided  a  building  on  Melville  Street  for  the  club, 
A  building  also  was  generously  assured  for  the  Business  Women's 
and  the  Working  Girls'  Clubs  at  the  corner  of  East  and  First 
Streets  in  1915,  when  it  had  grown  apparent  that  the  demand 


88  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

for  the  benefits  derivable  from  those  organizations  was  in  urgent 
excess  of  the  supply,  which  their  former  facilities  afforded. 

The  provision  of  public  playgrounds  within  the  thickly  set- 
tled portion  of  the  city  began  in  1910.  In  the  next  year,  a  com- 
mittee, appointed  by  the  mayor,  formed  the  Park  and  Play- 
ground Association,  of  which  the  declared  object  was  "the  pro- 
motion of  the  establishment,  acquisition,  maintenance,  and  im- 
provement of  parks  and  playgrounds  for  the  people  of  Pittsfield." 
The  association's  first  president  was  Joseph  Ward  Lewis,  and 
the  land  first  bought  for  its  use  in  1911  was  north  of  Columbus 
Avenue,  immediately  west  of  the  river.  The  attendance  at  the 
public  playgrounds  in  1915  was  about  90,000. 

In  connection  with  the  development,  between  1891  and  1916, 
of  these  and  kindred  activities  in  Pittsfield,  one  observes  that 
here  again  the  life  of  the  city  reflected  with  fidelity  the  life  of  the 
nation.  The  period  was  one  of  social  organization,  when  forces 
working  for  social  betterment  began  to  become  combined,  and 
subjected  to  unified  and  skilled  direction.  Of  this  tendency  the 
social  history  of  Pittsfield  presents  clear  evidence;  and,  if  one 
views  in  sum  all  the  various  endeavors  toward  mutual  help  and 
the  common  good,  he  will  find  that  they  represent  a  very  con- 
siderable part  of  the  domestic  life  of  the  community. 

The  city's  churches,  of  whose  philanthropic  ideal  such  agen- 
cies were,  to  some  degree,  the  practical  expression,  responded  to 
the  impetus  of  the  city's  growth.  New  edifices  were  dedicated 
by  Unity  Church,  in  1890;  by  Advent  Church,  in  1891;  by  the 
Evangelical  Lutheran  Church,  in  1893;  by  Notre  Dame  Church, 
in  1897;  by  Pilgrim  Memorial  Church,  in  the  following  year;  by 
St.  Charles'  Church,  in  1901;  and  by  the  Morningside  Baptist 
Society,  in  1913.  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  occupied  its 
own  building  in  1907.  The  Gathering  of  Israel  erected  a  new 
synagogue  in  1906.  The  building  on  Linden  Street  used  by  the 
Epworth  Mission  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was  re- 
modeled in  1906;  and  in  1913  a  chapel  was  erected  on  Elm 
Street  by  the  First  Baptist  Church.  The  activities,  in  short,  of 
every  religious  denomination  in  Pittsfield  were  increased.  St. 
Joseph's  Convent  was  opened  in  1897.  The  St.  Joseph's  pa- 
rochial schools  were  established  in  1899. 


PHASES  OF  THE  CITY'S  GROWTH  89 

By  the  public  schools  of  Pittsfield,  the  strain  of  expansion 
was  felt  with  trying  rigor.  The  enrolment  of  pupils  was  approx- 
imately doubled  in  the  fifteen  years  following  1900.  The  fact 
that  the  city  was  growing  rapidly  was  thus  emphasized  in  the 
experience  even  of  the  children,  and  the  constant  endeavor  of 
the  community  to  adjust  itself  to  this  growth  was  brought  home 
to  every  household.  Unlike  previous  generations  in  the  normally 
progressive  town,  Pittsfield  boys  and  girls  now  became  men  and 
women  among  surroundings  abnormally  changeful,  and  in  an 
atmosphere  charged  with  a  constant  effort  to  make  the  supply  of 
free  public  education  equal  to  the  demand  for  it.  The  city, 
wherein  the  building  and  enlargement  of  schoolhouses  were  an- 
nual necessities  for  several  years,  and  wherein  overcrowded 
schoolhouses  were  not  unusual,  was  by  these  witnesses  made 
forcibly  aware  of  the  need  of  effort  beyond  the  ordinary. 

Strain  and  growth  in  a  community  sometimes  produce  a 
certain  disintegration.  Against  this  tendency,  in  the  case  of 
Pittsfield,  has  often  worked  a  strong  impulse  summoning  the  en- 
deavor of  all  the  citizens  to  attain  some  object  for  the  direct 
benefit  of  comparatively  a  few.  Instances  of  this  are  the  popu- 
lar subscriptions,  to  which  allusion  has  been  made,  for  the  build- 
ing funds  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  and  the 
Father  Mathew  Total  Abstinence  Society.  An  increased  co- 
operation for  such  ends  deserves  to  be  noted  by  the  reader  inter- 
ested in  American  social  life  at  the  dawn  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury. It  was  a  characteristic  feature  of  the  period  in  Pittsfield. 
When  money  was  to  be  raised  for  a  worthy  object,  the  campaign, 
as  it  was  called,  was  elaborately  organized  and  a  studious  at- 
tempt was  made  to  enlist  in  the  ranks  every  member  of  the  entire 
community,  who  had  any  means  of  contribution.  Such  a  cam- 
paign, with  its  numerous  participants  and  daily  meetings,  fre- 
quently resulted  not  only  in  the  subscription  of  a  fund;  it  also 
operated  to  unify  the  social  body  and  to  bring  together  men  and 
women  of  various  sorts  in  the  friendly  pursuance  of  a  common 
purpose.  Social  co-operation  of  this  kind  was  not  a  new  thing  in 
Pittsfield,  but  the  scale  on  which  it  was  practiced  after  1900  in- 
troduced a  distinct  and  novel  phase  of  the  city's  growth. 

Hardly  so  evident  was  co-operation  in  industrial  and  mercan- 


90  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

tile  affairs.  A  Board  of  Trade  and  a  Merchants'  Association 
each  exerted  somewhat  spasmodic  influence.  The  former,  about 
1910,  seemed  to  have  been  placed  on  a  more  practical  and  perma- 
nent basis  than  it  had  previously  enjoyed,  but  in  general  the 
business  men  of  Pittsfield  may  be  said  to  have  shown  an  odd 
jealousy  of  official  organization,  an  inheritance,  perhaps,  from 
the  stubborn  Yankee  individualism  of  village  times.  Concerted 
action  in  matters  of  commerce  has  ordinarily  been  difficult  of  at- 
tainment; evoked  now  and  then  by  extraordinary  emergencies, 
it  ceased  to  be  operative  when  the  particular  need  for  it  had 
passed.  A  conspicuous,  and  in  its  purpose  the  most  important, 
effort  to  awaken  co-operation  of  this  character  was  made  in 
1900,  when  there  was  apprehension  that  the  shops  of  the  Stanley 
Electric  Manufacturing  Company  might  be  removed  from 
Pittsfield.  A  public  meeting  was  held,  which  was  attended  by 
three  hundred  influential  citizens  and  over  which  the  mayor  pre- 
sided; to  confer  with  the  new  management  of  the  company  a 
committee  was  selected,  consisting  of  William  E.  Tillotson, 
Henry  R.  Peirson,  Frank  W.  Button,  James  W.  Hull,  William  A. 
Whittlesey,  and  George  W.  Bailey,  and  was  instructed  "to  ar- 
range for  some  concerted  plan  of  action  whereby  the  require- 
ments of  the  company  may  be  fully  met  by  the  business  men  of 
Pittsfield".  The  committee  labored  with  zeal  and  determina- 
tion, and  on  March  twenty-ninth,  1900,  the  announcement  was 
made  by  the  new  president  of  the  company,  Dr.  F.  A.  C.  Perrine, 
that  the  factories  would  remain  in  the  city.  Flags  were  hoisted, 
bells  rung,  and  mill  whistles  blown;  and  Pittsfield  congratulated 
itself,  as  well  it  might.  The  success  of  this  meeting  of  1900 
affected  not  only  the  city's  material  prosperity,  but  also  the 
civic  spirit,  which  it  enlivened  and  at  least  momentarily  welded, 
from  elements  then  threatening  to  become  more  diverse  than 
they  had  ever  been  before. 

It  is  commonly  supposed  that  when  a  manufacturing  town  or 
city  in  America  grows  rapidly,  its  population  is  likely  to  become 
less  and  less  homogeneous.  For  striking  evidence  of  this  in 
Pittsfield's  case,  one  searches  the  figures  of  the  census  in  vain. 
In  1875  one  resident  in  every  four  had  been  born  in  a  foreign 
country;   in  1910  this  ratio  was  one  in  every  five.     Authorized 


PHASES  OF  THE  CITY'S  GROWTH  91 

statistics  of  a  later  census  are  not  yet  available.  Of  the  3,029 
foreign-born  inhabitants  in  1875,  fifty -four  per  cent,  were  of 
Irish  birth.  In  1910  the  white  foreign-born,  among  the  city's 
total  population  of  32,121,  numbered  6,744,  of  whom  1,629  had 
been  born  in  Ireland,  or  less  than  one-half  of  the  percentage  of 
1875,  Next  in  numerical  importance,  in  1910,  came  the  foreign- 
born  Italians,  with  a  census  of  1,158;  and  thereafter  followed 
the  French-Canadians  with  765,  the  Germans  with  623,  and  the 
Russians  with  580. 

Actual  homogeneity  of  population,  however,  cannot  depend 
entirely  upon  facts  revealed  by  census  figures.  From  Pittsfield, 
when  its  democratic  town  and  fire  district  meetings  were  abolish- 
ed, when  an  absentee  corporation  became  its  principal  industrial 
reliance,  when  its  social  life  assumed  of  necessity  a  character  less 
leisurely  and  simple,  there  escaped  undeniably  a  portion  of  the 
neighborly  village  spirit,  whether  valuable  or  not,  which  once 
tended  to  unify  its  people.  Taking  the  place  of  this,  it  may  be, 
was  the  insistent  need  of  concerted  endeavors,  some  of  which 
have  been  suggested,  to  sustain  the  manifold  burden  imposed 
by  the  rapid  growth  of  the  city ;  it  is  difficult  to  find  a  record  of  a 
public  meeting  assembled  to  consider  a  matter  of  local  interest 
between  1900  and  1910,  or  a  newspaper  editorial  dealing  with 
important  local  affairs,  wherein  this  need  is  not  implied  or  ex- 
plicitly urged;  and  the  community  was  in  small  danger  of  being 
self-complacent.  In  this  indirect  sense,  the  rapidity  of  the  city's 
growth  compelled  co-operation,  discouraged  faction,  and  united 
public  effort. 

The  esthetic  and  intellectual  forces  at  work  in  Pittsfield  during 
these  years  exhibited  the  same  trend  toward  organization  that 
was  seen  in  the  fields  of  philanthropy,  of  industry,  and  even  of 
social  amusement.  The  group  seemed  to  be  supplanting  the  in- 
dividual; and  the  period  was  characterized  by  the  formation  of 
almost  countless  "home  study"  and  "home  travel"  clubs,  "read- 
ing clubs",  and  other  small  associations,  which  met  to  discuss 
papers  written  by  members,  or  to  listen  to  an  address  by  a  visitor. 
Of  the  latter  sort,  the  most  important  numerically  was  the 
Wednesday  Morning  Club  of  women,  established  in  1879,  and  in 
1915  composed  of  about  three   hundred  members.     The   sub- 


92  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

jects  which  engaged  the  attention  of  such  organizations  are  in 
many  instances  recorded;  and  in  so  far  as  the  record  reveals  the 
intellectual  interests  of  the  community,  it  indicates  that  they 
were  animated  and  catholic,  and  that  the  traditional  Yankee 
fondness  for  speculative  philosophy  was  disappearing. 

The  most  powerful  single  stimulus  applied  to  these  interests, 
since  the  foundation  of  the  Berkshire  Athenaeum,  was  the  gift 
to  the  people  of  Berkshire,  by  Zenas  Crane  of  Dalton,  of  the 
Museum  of  Natural  History  and  Art.  The  building  on  South 
Street  was  dedicated  on  April  first,  1903,  The  great  and  perma- 
nent importance  of  the  institution  seems  not  to  have  been  under- 
estimated even  during  its  earlier  years;  and  the  fine  effects  of  the 
Museum  upon  the  higher  aspirations  of  the  public  apparently 
were  perceived  with  a  correct  vision  upon  the  day  of  its  dedica- 
tion. A  thoughtful  and  general  use  of  the  collections  and  art 
galleries  in  the  Museum  began  almost  immediately. 

It  is  believable  that  Pittsfield,  among  the  many  American 
towns  favored  by  benefactions  like  the  Museum  and  the  Athe- 
naeum, was  peculiarly  fortunate  in  the  periods  of  community 
development  at  which  the  gifts  were  received.  They  each  came 
at  a  time  when,  in  this  country,  the  incitation  of  the  liberalizing 
influences  of  art  and  literature  was  especially  salutary.  Thomas 
Allen  gave  to  Pittsfield  the  Athenaeum  building  in  1876.  It  was 
a  period  when  the  light  of  chivalry  and  idealism,  which  had  glori- 
fied the  Civil  War,  was  fading  in  New  England,  and  when  her 
people,  intent  upon  the  support  of  industries  and  the  readjust- 
ment of  political  affairs,  were  strongly  inclined  toward  the  over- 
valuation of  things  material.  This  tendency  in  Pittsfield  was 
then  opposed  by  whatever  force  may  be  exerted  through  a  public 
art  gallery  and  a  large  free  library.  Again,  in  1903,  when  Zenas 
Crane's  generosity  gladdened  Pittsfield,  the  time  seems  to  have 
been  singularly  appropriate  for  attempting  to  stem  a  local  wave 
of  materialism,  and  for  inviting,  with  renewed  emphasis,  the 
busy  people  of  a  rapidly  growing  and  prosperous  city  to  a  con- 
templation of  the  quiet  beauties  of  art  and  nature. 


CHAPTER  VII 
A  MISCELLANY  OF  CITY  LIFE 

THE  annual  cattle  show  and  fair  of  the  Berkshire  Agricul- 
tural Society  continued  to  be  the  most  enlivening  popular 
festival  of  the  year  until  the  middle  nineties  of  the  last 
century.  In  1892,  the  fair  was  honored  by  a  visit  from  the 
governor  of  the  Commonwealth,  William  E.  Russell.  The 
grounds  on  Wahconah  Street  were  thronged,  and  the  exhibits, 
then  and  for  several  years  thereafter,  encouraged  the  oflacers  of 
the  society  to  believe  that,  although  the  proportion  of  the  farmers 
in  the  central  part  of  the  county  was  dwindling,  the  prosperity 
of  the  organization  might  be  maintained.  They  reminded  them- 
selves that  the  purpose  for  which  their  society  was  incorporated, 
in  1811,  included  the  promotion  of  manufactures,  as  well  as  of 
agriculture;  and  they  made  determined  attempts  both  to  broad- 
en the  field  of  exhibits  and  to  add  the  quality  of  popular  enter- 
tainment to  the  fairs. 

The  venerable  society,  however,  was  not  so  constituted  as  to 
be  adapted  to  the  management  of  shows  of  a  composite  and 
spectacular  variety.  For  such  a  purpose,  its  somewhat  elaborate 
scheme  of  organization,  with  all  its  membership  privileges  and 
its  various  committees,  seemed  unwieldy.  When  the  rural  flavor 
of  a  village  cattle  show  no  longer  spiced  the  Pittsfield  fairs,  the 
society  found  that  it  was  ill-fitted  to  provide  more  modern  sub- 
stitutes. Attendance  languished.  The  more  conservative  mem- 
bers shuddered  at  the  accumulation  of  debt,  and  disclaimed  in- 
tention of  risking  money  "in  the  circus  business".  Moreover 
they  were  led  to  doubt  the  present  real  value  to  the  community 
of  the  original  functions  of  the  society.  The  promotion  of  local 
agriculture,  as  a  means  of  livelihood,  was  now  important  only  to 
a  small  minority  of  the  people  of  central  Berkshire,  while  the 
promotion  of  manufactures  appeared  amply  capable  of  looking 


94  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

out  for  itself;  and  the  former  object  might  be  pursued  by  the 
state  board  of  agriculture  and  by  the  active  farmers'  granges 
more  effectively,  perhaps,  than  by  a  society  whose  members, 
scattered  in  a  dozen  towns,  met  only  once  a  year. 

Under  these  circumstances,  the  directors  of  the  society  ap- 
pointed a  special  committee  to  report  a  plan  of  reorganization  in 
1901.  The  fair  of  that  year  had  resulted  in  a  financial  loss,  and 
the  liabilities  of  the  society,  including  a  mortgage  on  its  real  es- 
tate, were  announced  to  be  about  $10,000,  which  its  assets  ex- 
ceeded. The  directors,  upon  the  report  of  the  special  committee, 
recommended  that  "the  society  vote  to  authorize  the  president 
and  treasurer  to  sell  its  property,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the 
state  board  of  agriculture,  for  a  sum  not  less  than  the  liabilities 
of  the  society,  such  sale  to  be  made,  if  possible,  to  a  company 
organized  for  the  purpose  of  conducting  an  agricultural  fair  at 
Pittsfield",  The  society  so  voted,  at  a  special  meeting  on  Janu- 
ary seventh,  1902.  Endeavors  failed  to  organize  a  conducting 
company;  the  property  was  sold  to  private  parties;  and  the 
Berkshire  Agricultural  Society  ceased  to  exist.  The  final  officers 
were  Dr.  H.  P.  Jaques  of  Lenox,  president,  A.  E.  Malcolm  of 
Pittsfield,  treasurer,  and  J.  Ward  Lewis  of  Pittsfield,  secretary. 

The  enthusiastic  spirit  of  the  society's  founder,  Elkanah 
Watson,  would  have  been  delighted  by  the  quality  of  the  stock 
raised  on  Pittsfield  farms  between  1890  and  1915,  although  the 
quantity  of  farming  had  so  greatly  declined.  The  farms,  at  va- 
rious times  within  this  period,  of  William  F.  Milton,  Henry  C. 
Valentine,  Col.  Walter  Cutting,  John  A.  Spoor,  and  Arthur  N. 
Cooley  were  notable  examples  of  scientific  method.  Most  con- 
spicuous among  similar  enterprises  was  the  raising  of  horses  at 
Allen  Farm  on  the  road  to  Dalton.  There  W.  Russell  Allen 
began  to  breed  trotting  horses  in  1888.  In  1892,  Mr.  Allen's 
"Kremlin"  established  a  world's  record  for  five-year-old  trotting 
stallions,  and  the  Allen  Farm  stock  continued  annually  to  de- 
serve and  obtain  a  reputation  among  horsemen  as  high  as  that 
achieved  by  the  trotting  horses  of  any  breeding  farm  in  the 
United  States. 

In  the  southwestern  part  of  the  city,  the  Pittsfield  colony  of 
Shakers,  who  were  the  most  scientific  and  progressive  farmers  in 


A  MISCELLANY  OF  CITY  LIFE  95 

the  country  a  century  ago,  maintained  itself  in  worldly  pros- 
perity, despite  a  constant  decrease  in  number.  By  the  death  of 
Ira  Lawson,  in  1905,  the  Pittsfield  Shakers  lost  an  especially  im- 
portant agency  for  their  material  welfare.  Many  years  had 
then  elapsed  since  these  thrifty,  intelligent,  and  respectable 
people,  with  their  picturesque  garb  and  quaint  speech,  had  been 
figures  of  almost  daily  familiarity  in  the  town.  Since  1800,  the 
disciples  of  Mother  Ann  Lee  had  been  not  only  a  distinctive 
feature  of  Pittsfield  life,  but  also,  in  many  ways,  a  helpful  portion 
of  the  community,  and  their  gradual  disappearance  was  one  of 
the  changes  which  marked  the  end  of  village  days. 

Many  of  these  changes  were  pictured  effectively  by  Henry  L. 
Dawes,  in  an  informal  address  which  he  made  at  a  public  recep- 
tion in  Pittsfield  in  1893.  The  occasion  was  the  home-coming  of 
Mr.  Dawes  after  his  retirement  from  the  national  Senate;  he 
had  represented  Massachusetts  as  congressman  and  senator  at 
Washington  since  1857,  and  had  seen,  while  in  Congress,  vast 
national  development.  But  it  was  the  development  of  Pittsfield 
upon  which  the  address  of  Mr.  Dawes  affectionately  dwelt.  At 
the  beginning  of  his  congressional  service,  it  was  a  rural  village  of 
a  few  thousand  inhabitants,  and  when  he  returned  to  private 
life  in  it,  he  found  a  bustling  and  growing  city. 

The  reception,  which  was  held  at  Central  Hall  on  March 
twentieth,  1893,  was  memorable  for  its  neighborly  character, 
and  in  this  respect  honored  the  popular  spirit  no  less  than  the 
distinguished  and  revered  public  servant  whom  the  city  wel- 
comed home.  With  the  same  heartiness,  Pittsfield  shared  in  oc- 
casions of  a  similar  nature  in  the  adjacent  town  of  Dalton,  and 
notably  so  in  1912,  at  the  reception  there  of  W.  Murray  Crane, 
after  his  service  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 

The  city  was  twice  visited  briefly  by  President  William  Mc- 
Kinley,  once  in  1897  and  again  two  years  later.  On  September 
second,  1902,  President  Theodore  Roosevelt  arrived  in  Dalton, 
where  he  was  the  guest  of  W.  Murray  Crane,  then  governor  of 
Massachusetts.  In  the  morning  of  the  following  day,  the  Presi- 
dent came  to  Pittsfield.  He  was  received  at  the  Park  by  the 
mayor  of  the  city,  Daniel  England,  and  was  presented  to  an 
enthusiastic  throng,  which  packed  Park  Square.     The  occasion 


96  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

was  well-ordered  and  pleasant,  the  day  was  fair,  and  it  was  known 
that  the  President  was  happily  impressed  by  the  hospitable 
warmth  of  his  welcome  and  by  the  peaceful  beauty  of  the  majes- 
tic hills.  After  making  a  short  speech  from  a  platform  near  the 
Soldiers'  Monument,  he  set  off  toward  Lenox  in  a  four-horse 
carriage,  with  Governor  Crane  and  George  L.  Cortelyou,  the 
presidential  secretary. 

About  a  mile  from  the  Park,  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  on  South 
Street,  where  Wampenum  Brook  crosses  the  highway,  a  crowded 
trolley  car,  bound  also  south,  crashed  against  the  President's  car- 
riage. The  driver  was  severely  injured.  A  secret-service  guard, 
who  had  been  sitting  beside  the  driver,  was  instantly  killed. 
President  Roosevelt,  Governor  Crane,  and  Mr.  Cortelyou  es- 
caped unhurt. 

Rarely  was  Pittsfield  so  distressed  and  humiliated  as  it  was 
by  this  deplorable  and  shocking  occurrence,  which  came  within 
a  hair's  breadth  of  national  tragedy.  A  resolution,  passed  two 
days  later  by  the  city  council,  tried  to  voice  the  popular  feeling. 
"With  profound  sorrow,  the  city  council  of  the  city  of  Pittsfield 
regrets  the  accident  which  befell  the  president  of  the  United 

States  and  his  party The  impressions   of  the 

happy  incidents  of  the  morning,  including  the  president's  felici- 
tous address  at  the  Park,  were  instantly  dissipated  by  the  shock- 
ing news  of  the  imminent  personal  danger  which  had  threatened 
the  president,  the  governor  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  their 
party,  and  of  the  awful  death  of  Officer  William  Craig,  the  presi- 
dent's body-guard".  It  is  impossible,  however,  that  any  words 
could  have  expressed  adequately  the  shame  and  concern  felt  by 
the  community.  Judicial  procedure  in  January,  1903,  affixed 
the  legal  responsibility  for  the  fatal  collision,  and  the  motorman 
and  conductor  of  the  car  each  pleaded  guilty  in  court  to  a  charge 
of  manslaughter. 

President  Roosevelt  visited  Pittsfield  a  second  time  in  June, 
1905;  and  in  July,  1911,  President  William  Howard  Taft  tarried 
in  the  city  long  enough  to  deliver  a  genial  little  speech  about 
the  150th  anniversary  of  Pittsfield's  foundation,  to  an  audience 
at  the  triangular,  red,  railroad  station  on  West  Street. 

During  the  summer  of  1898,  the  station  frequently  became  a 


THEODORE  POMEROY 
1813—1881 


JAMES  D.  COLT 
1819—1881 


ENSIGN  H.  KELLOGG 
1812—1882 


EDWARD  LEARNED 
1820—1886 


A  MISCELLANY  OF  CITY  LIFE  97 

theater  for  the  display  of  that  patriotic  fervor  which  the  brief 
war  with  Spain  excited  everywhere  in  the  United  States.  Pitts- 
field  had  ceased  to  be  the  headquarters  of  a  company  of  state 
militia  with  the  disbanding  of  the  Colby  Guard,  twenty  years 
before.  When  Governor  Wolcott,  in  May,  1898,  called  out  the 
Western  Massachusetts  regiment  for  service  against  Spain,  the 
town  of  Adams  possessed  the  only  Berkshire  company;  in  this, 
two  Pittsfield  recruits  were  enlisted;  and  one  of  them,  Franklin 
W.  Manning,  lost  his  young  life  in  his  country's  service,  dying 
of  fever  on  the  return  voyage  from  Cuba. 

On  its  way  from  Adams  to  the  mobilization  camp,  Company 
M,  Second  Massachusetts  Infantry,  passed  through  Pittsfield. 
This  glimpse  of  the  actual  departure  of  Berkshire  soldiers 
seemed  immediately  to  kindle  the  popular  spirit.  The  pas- 
sage through  the  city  of  other  troops,  from  Massachusetts  and 
New  Hampshire,  awakened  tumultuous  excitement.  Local 
bands  and  vocalists  exhausted  themselves;  fireworks  blazed;  a 
veteran  fieldpiece  of  Civil  War  days  roared  salutes;  and  food 
and  coffee  were  pressed  upon  the  men  in  the  cars,  regardless  of 
the  hour. 

On  May  sixteenth,  the  city  council  passed  an  order  directing 
the  mayor  "to  notify  the  governor  of  the  commonwealth  that 
the  citizens  of  Pittsfield  stand  ready  whenever  called  upon  to 
raise  one  or  more  companies  for  any  arm  of  the  service  in  the 
present  war  with  Spain".  On  May  twenty-third,  nightly  drills 
of  a  provisional  company  were  commenced  at  Burbank's  Hall, 
under  the  supervision  of  John  Nicholson,  who  then  held  the 
office  of  chief  of  police.  No  additional  troops,  however,  were 
called  for  by  the  state  authorities,  and  Pittsfield  volunteers, 
therefore,  sought  enlistment  in  many  different  commands. 
The  city  thus  supplied  forty-two  men  for  the  war,  according  to 
a  list  read  at  the  Fourth  of  July  celebration  in  1898.  This 
number  was  subsequently  increased  to  103. 

The  observance  of  the  Fourth  of  July  of  1898  was  conducted 
with  unusual  elaboration,  and  made  distinctive  by  an  oration 
by  George  P.  Lawrence  of  North  Adams,  and  by  the  gift  of  a 
flag  to  the  city  by  the  pupils  of  the  public  schools,  which  was 
raised  on  a  mast  in  the  center  of  the  Park.     Several  other  flag 


98  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

raisings  marked  the  summer  of  the  Spanish  war,  where  favorite 
speakers  were  Rev.  John  W.  Thompson,  Joseph  Tucker,  WilUam 
Turtle,  and  WilUam  W.  Whiting,  the  mayor  of  the  city.  In 
more  practical  ways  did  Pittsfield  manifest  its  patriotism. 
Liberal  contributions  of  money  were  made  to  the  Red  Cross 
Society,  and  toward  the  equipment  of  a  hospital  ship,  while 
many  women  of  the  city  met  daily  to  sew  for  the  soldiers,  as  in 
the  days  of  '61. 

The  ungratified  desire  to  put  a  local  company  into  the  service 
in  1898  resulted  in  a  determined  effort  to  establish  in  Pittsfield  a 
company  of  state  militia.  This  was  finally  accomplished  three 
years  later,  through  a  petition  to  Governor  Crane,  which  was 
earnestly  endorsed  by  the  city  council;  and  Company  F,  Second 
Infantry,  M.  V.  M.,  was  mustered  in,  at  the  Casino  on  Summer 
Street,  June  sixth,  1901.  Its  first  captain  was  John  Nicholson, 
to  whose  energetic  spirit  it  owed  its  inception.  The  armory  on 
Summer  Street  was  dedicated  on  December  sixteenth,  1908.  To 
its  building  fund  the  city  made  a  liberal  appropriation. 

The  armory,  in  1912,  was  the  principal  scene  of  a  memorable 
celebration,  for  which  the  citizens  of  Pittsfield  proudly  and 
gratefully  provided.  This  was  the  observance  of  the  fiftieth 
anniversary  of  the  departure  from  Pittsfield  of  the  Thirty-seventh 
and  Forty-ninth  Massachusetts  regiments  in  the  Civil  War. 
A  large  citizens'  committee  made  industrious  preparations  for 
the  event,  and  on  September  seventh,  1912,  about  two  hundred 
veterans  of  the  two  regiments  met  in  Pittsfield.  They  were 
officially  greeted  at  the  Park  by  the  mayor,  and  after  the  busi- 
ness meetings  of  their  regimental  associations  they  dined  in  the 
armory,  as  honored  guests  of  the  people  of  the  city,  who  did  not 
fail  to  show  their  appreciation  of  the  sentimental  and  historical 
value  of  the  event.  At  the  armory,  the  speech  of  the  day  was 
made  by  Charles  E.  Hibbard,  on  behalf  of  the  citizens;  and  in 
the  afternoon  the  old  soldiers  were  taken  in  automobiles  to  re- 
visit their  first  camping-ground  at  the  former  Pleasure  Park,  on 
lower  Elm  Street. 

Previously  to  this  by  a  score  of  years,  the  Pleasure  Park, 
with  its  clubhouse,  race  track,  and  baseball  diamond,  had 
ceased  to  be  the  fashionable  center  of  outdoor  pastime.     Horse 


A  MISCELLANY  OF  CITY  LIFE  99 

racing,  however,  was  conducted  there  as  late  as  1889;  and  in 
1903  the  half-mile  track  was  publicly  utilized  for  the  last  time, 
when  the  newly  organized  Berkshire  Automobile  Club  held  a 
field  day,  on  July  fourth.  Then  a  crowd  of  curious  spectators 
was  interested  by  motor  car  races,  wherein  the  novel  vehicles 
traveled  at  the  rate  of  two  and  a  half  minutes  for  the  mile.  The 
club  already  had  participated  that  year  in  its  first  hill-climbing 
contest,  over  a  course  of  two-fifths  of  a  mile  on  West  Street,  from 
the  river  bridge  to  the  top  of  Briggs  hill.  The  record  of  the 
winning  car  was  sixty-two  seconds.  Four  years  previously,  in 
1899,  a  local  newspaper  had  reported  that  "there  are  two  auto- 
mobiles now  in  Pittsfield". 

A  revival  of  bicycle  track-racing,  which  had  been  popular 
at  the  Pleasure  Park  in  the  early  eighties,  was  attempted  with 
a  good  deal  of  elaboration  in  1893,  at  the  fair  grounds  on  Wah- 
conah  Street.  The  arrangements  for  the  "tournament"  pro- 
vided for  expensive  prizes,  a  street  parade,  and,  in  the  evening, 
a  wheelmen's  ball;  but  the  weather  was  unpropitious,  the  track 
unsuitable,  and  the  efiFort  was  not  repeated.  Road-racing  on 
bicycles  obtained  a  greater  share  of  attention;  and  during  the 
last  decade  of  the  century,  until  the  machines  passed  out  of 
vogue  for  the  purposes  of  pleasure,  bicycle  riding  was  the  most 
conspicuous  feature  of  Pittsfield  outdoor  life.  It  may  be  said 
to  have  been  in  some  measure  succeeded,  for  a  time  and  fashion- 
ably at  least,  by  the  game  of  golf,  first  played  in  Pittsfield  in 
1897,  when  the  Country  Club,  having  been  formed  in  that  year, 
opened  for  its  members  a  nine-hole  course,  which  occupied  the 
quadrangle  bounded  by  Dawes  Avenue,  Holmes  Road,  Williams 
Street,  and  Arlington  Street.  The  club  purchased  its  present 
beautiful  property  on  lower  South  Street  in  1899,  and  occupied 
it  the  following  year. 

The  Pittsfield  Boat  Club,  soon  after  its  organization  in  1898, 
acquired  the  Point  of  Pines  at  Pontoosuc  Lake;  and  under  its 
auspices  canoeing  and  boating  became  pastimes  of  increased 
popularity.  Initiated  by  this  club  in  1899,  the  annual  illumi- 
nated parades  of  boats  and  canoes  at  Pontoosuc  were  attractive 
events.  The  advent  of  the  trolley  car,  in  1891,  had  already  en- 
couraged the  erection  of  numerous  cottages  and  bungalows  along 


100  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

the  southern  and  eastern  shores  of  the  lake;  refreshment  and 
amusement  pavilions  were  set  up;  and  the  sylvan  and  solitary 
environment  of  Pontoosuc  was  rapidly  transformed  into  a  pleas- 
urable dwelling  place  for  nearly  a  thousand  people  during  the 
summer  months.  Camp  Merrill,  the  summer  quarters  of  the 
local  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  was  established  at  the  lake  in  1905,  on  land 
given  to  the  association  by  Miss  Hannah  Merrill. 

A  unique  outdoor  spectacle,  which  interested  Pittsfield  often 
between  1906  and  1909,  was  the  starting  of  balloon  races.  In 
1907,  the  city  was  oflScially  designated  as  the  balloon  ascent 
station  of  the  Aero  Club  of  America,  whose  object  was  the  pro- 
motion of  aerial  navigation;  the  choice  of  Pittsfield  as  its  head- 
quarters for  ballooning  was  due  probably  to  the  residence  in  the 
neighboring  town  of  Lenox  of  one  of  its  influential  members, 
Cortland  F.  Bishop,  and  to  the  efforts  of  local  hotel  and  news- 
paper men,  as  well  as  to  the  co-operation  of  the  management  of 
the  local  gasworks.  Land  near  the  gasworks  on  East  Street, 
beyond  Silver  Lake,  was  provided  with  facilities  for  the  inflation 
of  balloons,  and  became  known  as  Aero  Park.  The  first  trial 
there  of  sending  up  passenger-bearing  balloons  was  made  on 
March  tenth,  1906,  and  high  winds  prevented  a  start;  but  not 
infrequent  ascents  were  made  thereafter,  and  the  city  enjoyed  a 
little  temporary  national  fame  because  of  them.  The  Pittsfield 
branch  of  the  Aero  Club  purchased  a  balloon  of  its  own  in  1908, 
dubbed  it  "The  Heart  of  the  Berkshires",  and  leased  it  to  ad- 
venturous voyagers,  supplying  the  services  of  a  licensed  pilot. 
Within  two  or  three  years,  however,  aviation  by  means  of  aero- 
planes and  dirigibles  superseded  ballooning  in  public  interest, 
and  the  ascents  from  Pittsfield  were  discontinued. 

The  winter  sport  of  curling  was  introduced  to  the  city  in 
1896,  when  the  Curling  Club  built  a  rink  at  Morningside;  there 
ice  polo  was  also  popular,  until  the  rink  was  dismantled  in  1903. 
Beginning  about  1887,  the  American  modification  of  Rugby 
football  was  strenuously  in  vogue  every  autumn  among  the 
young  men  and  boys  of  Pittsfield;  and  games  on  the  Common 
during  the  autumn  months  attracted  large  and  vocal  crowds. 
An  excellent  ice  hockey  team  represented  the  city  in  1904,  but 
the  sport,  in  organized  form,  did  not  appear  to  stand  permanently 


A  MISCELLANY  OF  CITY  LIFE  101 

in  the  affections  of  the  people.  Herein  the  national  game  of 
baseball  doubtless  held  first  place.  In  1894,  a  team  of  profes- 
sional players  represented  Pittsfield,  for  about  a  month's  time, 
in  the  New  York  State  Baseball  League;  the  local  games  were 
played  on  Wahconah  Street  at  Wahconah  Park,  which  was 
opened  in  1892.  The  park,  in  1913,  was  occupied  by  another 
league  baseball  team,  representing  Pittsfield  in  the  Eastern  As- 
sociation. 

The  indoor  game  of  basketball  was  first  played  publicly  in 
Pittsfield  at  the  Casino  on  Summer  Street,  which  was  built  in 
1898  and  was  utilized  variously  as  a  theater,  a  rink  for  roller 
skating,  and  an  armory  for  Company  F.  Remodeled,  it  became 
the  Empire  Theater  and  afterward  the  Grand. 

The  Academy  of  Music  remained  the  city's  chief  resort  for 
theatrical  amusement  until  1903.  On  the  evening  of  December 
twelfth  of  that  year,  occurred  the  last  dramatic  performance  on 
the  Academy's  stage,  which  was  thereafter  dismantled;  the 
theater  on  the  second  floor  was  changed  to  a  public  hall  and 
subsequently  into  a  place  for  the  display  of  moving  pictures. 
The  final  year  of  the  existence  of  the  theater  as  originally  equip- 
ped was  marked  by  a  stirring  night.  After  an  exhibition  of 
trained  animals  at  the  Academy  in  April,  1903,  two  lions  broke 
loose  in  the  alley  behind  the  theater,  and  a  lion  hunt  electrified 
North  Street.  One  of  the  beasts  was  killed  and  the  other  re- 
captured. 

The  Colonial  Theater  on  South  Street  was  opened  on  Septem- 
ber twenty-eighth,  1903,  with  a  production  of  the  musical  play, 
"Robin  Hood".  The  building  was  erected  by  John  and  James 
Sullivan,  of  North  Adams,  who  conducted  the  theater  until  the 
winter  of  1911,  when  it  was  sold  to  a  corporation  comprising 
about  fifty  local  shareholders.  The  fact  that  the  playhouse  was 
then  owned  and  directed  by  a  considerable  number  of  citizens 
aroused  attention  somewhat  widely  spread  throughout  the 
country,  although  the  establishment  of  a  municipal  theater,  ac- 
cording to  the  European  model,  was  probably  far  from  the  pur- 
pose of  the  enterprise.  In  1915  the  local  corporation  sold  the 
property.  The  increasing  vogue  of  entertainment  by  means  of 
moving  pictures  encouraged  the  erection  of  the  Majestic  Theater 


102  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

on  North  Street  in  1910  and  of  the  Union  Square  Theater  on 
Union  Street  in  1912. 

The  disbanding  of  the  Berkshire  Musical  Festival  Association, 
in  1895,  left  the  city  without  an  organized  agency  for  the  promo- 
tion of  concerts;  but  in  1897  this  need  was  met  by  the  formation 
of  the  Pittsfield  Symphony  Society,  under  whose  auspices  a 
symphony  orchestra  was  assembled,  with  Fred  J.  Liddle  as  di- 
rector, and  a  series  of  meritorious  concerts  given  annually. 
The  orchestra  made  its  initial  appearance  on  December  eleventh, 
1897,  at  Central  Hall,  and  about  twenty  concerts  were  enjoyed 
before  the  activities  of  the  society  were  suspended  in  1904. 
Productions  of  oratorios  and  choral  compositions,  always  popular 
undertakings  in  Pittsfield,  gratified  the  local  public  especially 
under  the  leadership  of  Charles  F.  Smith  at  the  Methodist 
Church  on  Fenn  Street,  while  to  private  enterprise  were  due  pro- 
fessional visits  to  Pittsfield  of  such  celebrated  musical  artists  as 
Mme.  Schumann-Heink,  Paderewski,  Kreisler,  and  John  Mc- 
Cormack,  who  were  heard  at  the  armory  and  at  the  Colonial. 

Among  social  diversions,  the  annual  charity  ball  was  con- 
spicuous, arranged  originally  for  the  benefit  of  the  Union  for 
Home  Work.  Pittsfield's  first  "charity  ball"  was  held  at  Cen- 
tral Hall  on  the  evening  of  April  eighth,  1896.  In  order  to 
assure  its  success,  many  prominent  citizens,  including  the  mayor, 
co-operated  in  preliminary  committees;  and  a  social  commenta- 
tor on  the  period  might  consider  it  worth  while  to  note  that  the 
ball  encountered  well-intentioned  and  public  opposition  from 
two  pulpits.  It  was  repeated  for  several  years  on  an  elaborate 
scale  for  its  original  financial  object,  and  afterward  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  Day  Nursery  Association  and  the  House  of  Mercy. 

During  the  years  which  we  are  now  surveying,  the  two  hos- 
pitals, as  well,  indeed,  as  the  benevolent  spirit  of  the  entire  city, 
were  put  to  a  very  rigorous  and  abrupt  test  on  December  twenty- 
ninth,  1910,  when  occurred  the  most  severe  disaster  in  Pittsfield's 
history.  On  that  day,  a  boiler  exploded  in  the  power  house  of  an 
ice  company,  standing  on  the  north  shore  of  Morewood  Lake, 
near  the  railroad.  The  hour  was  in  the  morning,  and  the  work- 
men had  assembled  in  the  engine  house,  in  order  to  be  placed  on 
the  pay  roll  for  the  day.     Fourteen  men  were  killed  instantly. 


A  MISCELLANY  OF  CITY  LIFE  103 

including  the  engineer  in  charge,  three  died  afterward  of  their 
injuries,  and  twenty  were  painfully  but  not  mortally  hurt. 
Of  the  local  surgeons  and  nurses,  and  of  the  executive  forces  of 
both  hospitals,  prompt,  skillful,  and  trying  labor  was  demanded 
and  obtained;  nor  was  other  help  lacking.  The  city  council 
met  at  once  to  devise  plans  for  the  relief  of  those  in  danger  of 
destitution  because  of  the  calamity,  and  the  people  for  this  pur- 
pose soon  subscribed  a  fund  of  $10,000.  The  presiding  magis- 
trate at  the  legal  inquest  did  not  find  that  the  unlawful  act  of 
any  person  then  alive  contributed  to  the  death  of  the  seventeen 
victims. 

A  wave  of  popular  excitement  of  a  different  sort  agitated 
Pittsfield  in  1900.  In  the  early  morning  of  August  twentieth, 
the  police  department  was  notified  that  the  residence  of 
Robert  L.  Fosburg,  at  the  corner  of  Tyler  Street  and  Dalton 
Avenue,  had  been  broken  into  by  three  masked  intruders,  and 
that  his  daughter  had  been  shot  and  killed.  The  fire  alarm  was 
at  once  sounded,  thus  placing  at  the  disposal  of  the  authorities  a 
large  number  of  active  men  who  knew  the  city  well,  and  many 
of  whom  were  special  police  officers.  A  search  was  commenced, 
not  only  of  the  city  itself  but  of  the  surrounding  hills.  It  was 
maintained  for  several  days  and  nights,  it  engaged  the  services 
of  about  five  hundred  armed  volunteers,  besides  those  of  Pinker- 
ton  detectives  and  the  state  and  local  police,  and  it  was  a  unique 
episode  in  the  city's  experience. 

No  persons  were  discovered  whose  whereabouts  on  the  night 
of  August  twentieth  were  not  satisfactorily  determined.  Sub- 
sequently the  grand  jury  brought  an  indictment  against  Miss 
Fosburg's  brother,  Robert  L.  Fosburg,  Jr.,  for  the  unpremedi- 
tated killing  of  his  sister.  The  case  came  to  trial  at  Pittsfield  in 
July,  1901,  and  was  a  newspaper  sensation  of  some  notoriety. 
After  hearing  the  evidence,  the  presiding  justice,  declining  to  al- 
low the  case  to  go  to  the  jury,  directed  the  discharge  of  the  de- 
fendant. The  identity  of  the  slayer  of  Miss  Fosburg  has  never 
been  legally  determined. 

A  sweeping  disaster  by  fire  menaced  the  city  at  midnight  of 
January  twenty-seventh,  1912;  and  in  the  early  morning  hours 
of  the  following  day  two  large  blocks  on  the  east  side  of  North 


104  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Street,  immediately  south  of  the  railroad  bridge,  had  been  burned 
to  the  ground.  One  of  these  was  the  Academy  of  Music  building. 
Its  upper  stories,  planned  originally  for  a  theater,  were  palatable 
food  for  voracious  flames,  while  the  contents  of  some  shops  on 
the  ground  floor,  in  which  paint,  ammunition,  high  explosives, 
and  barrels  of  spirits  were  variously  stored,  caused  the  fire  to  be 
peculiarly  hazardous.  In  all  probability,  the  railroad  alone 
prevented  the  conflagration  from  spreading  northward;  but 
it  was  confined  on  the  south  and  east  by  the  firemen,  professional 
and  amateur,  who  worked  effectively  in  the  zero  weather  and 
with  appliances  not  then  adequate  for  such  a  task.  The  total 
loss  to  the  owners  and  tenants  of  the  buildings  was  estimated  at 
$300,000. 

The  glories  of  the  old-time  firemen's  muster,  dear  to  the 
volunteer  firemen  of  other  days,  were  vividly  revived  in  Septem- 
ber of  1895.  For  three  days,  beginning  on  September  twenty- 
fourth,  the  State  Firemen's  Association  met  in  convention  at 
Pittsfield.  The  occasion  was  celebrated  with  extensive  hospitali- 
ty, by  a  gathering  of  veteran  and  active  volunteer  firemen  from 
many  towns,  by  parades  and  competitions,  and  by  the  dedica- 
tion of  the  city's  new  fire  department  house  at  the  head  of  School 
Street. 

Of  the  people  in  any  American  town  or  city  where  the  social 
traditions  of  a  large  volunteer  fire  department  are  still  active, 
anxiety  to  acquit  themselves  with  credit  as  public  hosts  is  charac- 
teristic. It  was  certainly  characteristic  for  many  years  of  Pitts- 
field  men,  whatever  may  have  been  the  inspiration;  and  often 
was  the  same  hospitable  desire  displayed  also  by  the  women  of 
the  town  and  city,  especially  by  the  women  of  the  several  church 
societies  and  of  the  relief  corps  auxiliary  to  the  Grand  Army 
posts.  When  the  community  as  a  whole  was  called  upon  to  en- 
tertain a  number  of  visitors,  the  usual  response  from  Pittsfield 
was  willing,  quick,  and  general,  and  a  zealous  wish,  in  vernacular 
phrase,  "to  do  the  thing  right"  seems  to  have  been  prevalent  and 
dominant.  The  people  were  not  averse,  among  themselves,  to 
consider  this  trait  with  a  good  deal  of  justifiable  pride,  and  to 
insist  upon  its  manifestation. 

It  was  quite  natural,  then,  that  during  the  locally  prosperous 


A  MISCELLANY  OF  CITY  LIFE  105 

and  optimistic  years  following  1900  the  city's  public  celebrations 
were  laboriously  and  thoughtfully  prepared.  The  custom  of 
providing  a  huge  municipal  Christmas  tree  in  the  Park  was  ini- 
tiated in  1914.  The  observances  of  the  national  holiday  on  the 
Fourth  of  July  had  been  somewhat  haphazard,  but  in  1909  they 
began  to  be  more  carefully  planned  events.  The  Merchants' 
Association,  in  1909,  organized  a  celebration  of  the  Fourth 
which  attracted  to  the  city  about  thirty  thousand  strangers,  to 
be  animated  by  parades,  a  balloon  race,  athletic  contests,  and 
an  exhibition  of  fireworks.  Thereafter  the  day  was  similarly 
distinguished  annually,  at  a  later  date  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Board  of  Trade  and  partly  with  the  judicious  design  to  provide 
safe  and  sane  entertainment  for  a  popular  festival  which  cus- 
tomarily had  kept  doctors  at  work  over  maimed  victims  of  pa- 
triotic fervor  expressed  by  firecrackers  and  toy  cannons. 

By  far  the  most  elaborate  and  important  municipal  celebra- 
tion in  the  history  of  Pittsfield  began  on  July  second,  1911,  and 
commemorated  the  150th  anniversary  of  the  incorporation  of  the 
town.  Its  proceedings,  which  continued  for  three  days,  shall 
be  the  subject  of  another  chapter,  but  here  it  seems  to  be  appro- 
priate to  say  that  the  preparation  and  the  execution  of  the  plans 
for  this  event  were  characterized  by  that  hospitable  public 
spirit,  which,  whenever  properly  called  upon,  always  unified  the 
people  of  the  city. 

Leaving  aside  political  questions  and  those  incident  to  the 
administration  of  municipal  affairs,  the  dispute  in  1906  con- 
cerning the  location  of  a  federal  building  for  a  post  office  sur- 
passed in  vigor  any  other  difference  of  public  opinion  which  per- 
turbed the  city  during  the  first  twenty -five  years  of  its  existence. 
The  post  office  accommodations  in  the  Berkshire  Life  Insurance 
Company's  building  had  become  notoriously  inadequate,  and 
it  was  known  that  the  authorities  at  Washington  were  meditating 
a  change  of  quarters.  Among  the  citizens,  two  energetic  fac- 
tions at  once  came  in  conflict,  one  desirous  that  the  office,  with 
increased  facilities,  should  be  retained  where  it  was,  and  the 
other  strenuously  urging  that  it  be  moved  to  the  Mills  building, 
on  the  east  side  of  North  Street  to  the  north  of  the  railroad 
bridge.     The   contest   was   devoid   neither  of   acerbity   nor  of 


106  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

humor,  as  when  rival  Pittsfield  delegations  to  Washington,  each 
supposedly  clandestine,  met  unexpectedly  on  the  very  threshold 
of  the  postmaster-general.  It  assumed  another  phase  when 
Congress  made  an  appropriation  for  a  federal  building  in  the 
city,  and  when  the  postal  department  invited  offers  of  land  for 
its  site.  Various  owners  of  real  estate  then  submitted  nine  loca- 
tions, lying  in  a  zone  which  extended  from  the  south  side  of 
West  Street  northward  to  Kent  Avenue. 

The  ensuing  discussion  between  "the  north-enders  and  the 
south-enders"  is  now  significant  chiefly  for  the  light  which  its 
arguments  may  cast  upon  the  physical  development  of  the  city 
in  1906.  The  north-end  party  asserted  that  the  center  of  popu- 
lation was  at  the  line  of  Madison  Avenue,  that  only  one  business 
structure  of  importance  had  been  erected  south  of  the  Park  for 
forty  years,  and  that  to  establish  the  post  office  near  the  Park 
would  "retard  the  growth  of  the  city,  forcing  its  centralization 
to  a  point  from  which  it  was  persistently  growing";  while  the 
other  faction  was  attached  to  the  theory  that  Park  Square  was 
likely  to  be  the  permanent  center  of  the  city's  cardinal  activities, 
and  that  the  presence  there  of  large  financial  institutions,  the 
city  hall,  and  the  junction  of  the  main  lines  of  street  railways, 
prohibited  the  removal  of  the  post  office  to  a  considerable  dis- 
tance. 

In  October  of  1906,  the  postal  department  expressed  its 
preference  for  a  site  on  the  corner  of  Fenn  Street  and  an  extension 
of  Allen  Street,  provided  the  city's  holdings  therein  could  be  se- 
cured at  a  price  which  might  be  entertained.  On  November 
twelfth,  1906,  the  city  council  voted  to  make  the  necessary  ar- 
rangements, which  involved  not  only  the  sale  of  a  schoolhouse 
lot,  but  also  the  moving  of  the  schoolhouse  westward,  and  the 
dedication  of  land  adjacent  to  highway  uses.  The  result  was 
more  satisfactory  than  compromises  usually  are.  The  corner 
stone  of  the  new  federal  building  was  laid  in  1910;  and  the  post 
office  began  business  there  on  January  first,  1911. 

Three  years  later,  on  August  twenty-third,  1914,  the  public 
was  gratified  by  the  opening  of  a  new  railroad  station  on  West 
Street.  The  mayor  had  appointed  a  committee,  composed  of 
Zenas  Crane,  John  A.  Spoor,  and  John  C.  Crosby,  to  confer  with 


A  MISCELLANY  OF  CITY  LIFE  107 

the  railroad  authorities,  and  urge  upon  them  the  advisability  of 
supplying  the  city  with  a  station  suitable  to  its  size  and  in- 
creased importance  as  a  railroad  center.  The  triangular  building 
which  had  served  for  forty  years  was  obviously  outgrown  and 
outdated,  and  the  committee's  object  was  achieved.  The  New 
York,  New  Haven,  and  Hartford  Railroad  Company,  having  ac- 
quired the  former  Burbank  Hotel  property,  broke  ground  on  that 
site  in  1913  for  a  new  station,  and  upon  its  completion  razed  the 
veteran  structure  nearby. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  CONDUCT  OF  MUNICIPAL  AFFAIRS,  1891-1916 

UNTIL  the  twentieth  century,  the  inhabitants  of  American 
cities  seem  rarely  to  have  concerned  themselves  with 
theories  of  municipal  government.  Municipal  administra- 
tion was  popularly  measured  not  by  its  method  but  by  what  it 
visibly  and  tangibly  produced.  A  scheme  of  city  government, 
which  unavoidably  wasted  time,  effort,  and  even  some  of  the 
taxpayers'  money,  might  often  pass  uncriticized,  if  only  it  yielded 
to  the  people  at  large  an  ordinary  supply  of  physical  conveniences; 
and  the  principal,  or  at  least  the  primary,  test  of  the  conduct  of 
municipal  affairs  was  commonly  applied  by  a  count  of  the  city's 
material  possessions. 

The  public  equipment  bequeathed  in  1891  by  the  town  and 
the  fire  district  to  the  city  of  Pittsfield  was  competent.  The 
police  and  fire  departments  were  efficient.  The  waterworks  were 
in  good  condition  and  financially  so  situated  that  their  indebted- 
ness was  no  burden.  Serviceable  sidewalks  had  been  newly 
built,  and  the  street  lighting  system  was  sufficient.  The  care 
of  the  poor  was  suitably  administered.  The  town  sustained  in 
part  an  excellent  public  library.  The  education  supplied  by  the 
public  schools  was  commensurate  with  the  popular  desire. 
The  indebtedness  of  town  and  fire  district,  which  was  assumed 
by  the  city,  was  $456,128.25.  The  taxable  valuation  was 
$10,292,696. 

In  some  respects,  however,  the  municipal  equipment  of  1891 
was  defective.  The  precise  locations  of  many  streets  were 
legally  indefinite,  and  the  engineering  records  of  the  town  and 
fire  district  were  incomplete.  There  was  dissatisfaction  with  the 
existing  machinery  for  the  assessment  of  taxes,  which  was  de- 
nounced as  out-of-date  and  inexact.  It  was  necessary  at  once 
to  rearrange  and  partly  to  rebuild  the  town  hall,  of  which  the 


CONDUCT  OF  MUNICIPAL  AFFAIRS,  1891-1916    109 

town  in  1882  had  acquired  sole  ownership  by  purchase,  for 
$10,000,  from  the  successors  to  the  rights  therein  of  Lemuel 
Pomeroy.  More  conspicuous  was  the  necessity  for  improving 
the  condition  of  the  business  streets;  most  conspicuous  was  the 
vital  need  of  new  sewers. 

In  1890,  a  joint  committee  of  the  town  and  the  fire  district 
had  obtained  the  passage  by  the  legislature  of  an  "Act  to  au- 
thorize the  City  of  Pittsfield  to  construct  a  system  of  sewerage, 
and  to  provide  for  the  payment  therefor".  The  voters  of  Pitts- 
field,  at  the  election  of  December  second,  1890,  gave  to  this 
measure  their  emphatic  approval,  and  under  its  provisions  work 
began  without  delay,  A  board  of  sewer  commissioners  was  im- 
mediately empowered,  of  which  the  members  were  John  H. 
Manning,  Charles  W.  Kellogg,  and  James  L.  Bacon.  They 
began,  in  the  summer  of  1891,  to  execute  plans  prepared  by 
Ernest  W.  Bowditch,  of  Boston,  the  engineer  employed  by  the 
joint  committee  above  mentioned.  The  proposed  system  was 
endorsed  by  the  state's  board  of  health. 

Two  main  trunk  sewers  were  prescribed.  One  of  them  was 
to  run  south  from  a  point  on  Burbank  Street,  near  the  jail,  to 
Elm  Street,  thence  to  follow  the  line  of  the  river  to  an  outfall  a 
short  distance  south  of  Pomeroy  Avenue.  The  other  was  to 
begin  at  Alder  Street  and  follow  approximately  the  west  branch 
of  the  Housatonic  to  the  same  place  of  discharge  into  the  river. 
This  outlet  was  to  be  closed  not  later  than  the  year  1900,  and 
the  sewage  to  be  thereafter  disposed  of  by  the  method  known  as 
intermittent  filtration. 

Ground  was  broken  in  1891  for  the  eastern  trunk  sewer,  and 
the  western  was  commenced  in  1892.  The  laying  of  numerous 
laterals  kept  pace  as  closely  as  possible  with  the  construction  of 
the  main  lines.  The  task  was  considerable,  and  it  made  the 
city  first  acquainted  with  large  numbers  of  Italian  laborers. 
At  the  end  of  the  working  season  of  1893,  the  energetic  commis- 
sioners had  directed  the  building  of  nineteen  miles  of  sewer, 
and  the  expenditure  of  $274,000.  During  the  twenty-four  years 
between  1867  and  1891,  the  construction  cost  to  the  town  and 
fire  district  of  their  sewers  and  main  drains  had  been  less  than 
$100,000. 


110  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

By  authority  of  legislative  enactment  at  Boston  in  1895,  the 
local  board  of  public  works  assumed,  in  May  of  that  year,  the 
powers  and  duties  exercised  by  the  sewer  commissioners.  The 
intermittent  filtration  beds  were  not  completed  until  1902,  when 
they  were  placed  in  operation  near  the  river  about  two  miles 
southeast  of  the  original  outfall  of  the  trunk  sewers,  and  the 
sewage  was  forced  thereto  by  a  pumping  plant.  In  1915,  the 
new  sewer  system,  having  year  by  year  been  extended  and  en- 
larged, represented  a  cost  of  about  $860,000. 

The  improvement  of  the  central  streets  was  attempted  by 
the  city  with  similar  promptness,  but  here  permanent  results 
were  not  so  speedily  evident.  The  method  in  use  was  that  of 
macadamizing,  and  the  town  authorities  had  been  trying  to 
accomplish  the  impossible  task,  in  the  words  of  the  first  mayor's 
inaugural  address,  of  "compacting  a  road  bed  so  as  to  bear  the 
weight  of  a  loaded  wagon  of  from  four  to  six  tons,  having  wheels 
with  narrow  tires,  by  the  use  of  a  road  roller  weighing  not  over 
eight  tons".  The  city's  first  board  of  public  works  immediately 
bought  a  heavy  steam  roller,  and  used  for  macadamizing  the 
main  highways  a  more  suitable  material  than  the  flinty  rock  of 
the  eastern  hills,  of  which  the  town  had  long  availed  itself; 
nevertheless,  the  condition  of  the  business  streets  was  not  gen- 
erally held  to  be  satisfactory.  The  mayor  in  1903  felt  justified 
in  declaring  to  the  city  council  that  "our  principal  business 
thoroughfares  are  today  in  practically  the  same  condition  in 
which  they  were  twenty  years  ago".  Indeed,  no  subject  in  the 
field  of  public  utilities  has  been  so  perplexing  and  so  chronic  a 
problem  to  successive  administrations  of  town  and  city. 

For  several  years  immediately  prior  to  1902,  delay  in  paving 
the  streets  had  been  counseled  with  apparent  wisdom,  because 
of  the  constant  laying  of  new  sewers,  water  and  gas  pipes,  and 
car  tracks;  but  at  the  municipal  election  of  that  year  the  follow- 
ing referendum  was  submitted  to  the  voters:  "Shall  a  system  of 
street  paving  be  commenced  in  this  city  in  1903?"  The  referen- 
dum received  3,077  affirmative  votes  to  717  in  the  negative. 
So  earnest  were  the  voters,  that,  at  the  same  time,  they  some- 
what confusedly  registered  by  ballot  their  approval  of  bonding 
the  city  in  the  sum  of  $100,000  for  the  expense  of  paving,  and  also 


CONDUCT  OF  MUNICIPAL  AFFAIRS,  1891-1916    111 

of  meeting  the  expense  by  annual  appropriations,  which  were 
financial  measures  obviously  incompatible.  As  to  the  main 
question,  however,  the  instruction  by  the  electorate  was  both 
explicit  and  mandatory. 

Harry  D.  Sisson,  the  mayor  of  1903,  pressed  the  undertaking 
with  due  dispatch.  During  the  year  Clapp  Avenue,  a  portion 
of  upper  North  Street,  and  West  Street,  from  the  railroad  station 
to  the  Park,  were  surfaced  with  bitulithic  pavement,  and  Park 
Place  and  lower  North  Street  were  paved  with  sheet  asphalt. 
The  expenditure  of  about  $100,000  was  supervised  by  a  special 
committee,  headed  by  the  mayor. 

Subsequent  additions  to  Pittsfield's  system  of  paved  streets 
increased  its  mileage  only  slightly  in  twelve  years.  That  sys- 
tem measured,  in  January,  1915,  about  three  and  a  half  miles  of 
asphalt,  bitulithic,  brick,  wood  block,  asphaltic  macadam,  and 
cement  concrete  pavement.  The  chief  obstacle  to  the  extensions 
of  permanent  pavement  seems  not  to  have  been  any  lack  of 
favorable  public  sentiment  but  rather  the  problem  of  finance, 
arising,  as  did  so  many  of  Pittsfield's  problems  contemporaneous 
with  it,  from  the  abnormally  rapid  growth  of  the  city.  The 
large  annual  gains  of  population  forced  upon  the  municipal 
authorities  the  equipment  of  new  residential  streets  in  preference 
to  the  costly  improvements  of  existing  business  thoroughfares. 
It  may  justly  be  observed,  also,  that  this  unusual  burden  chanced 
to  be  imposed  upon  the  local  officials  at  the  time  when  the  ad- 
vent of  the  motor  car  and  the  motor  truck  was  also  perplexing 
highway  builders  everywhere  in  this  country  with  novel  difficul- 
ties. 

The  Ashley  waterworks,  acquired  by  the  new  city  from  the 
old  fire  district,  were  not  supplied  with  a  suitable  storage  reservoir 
and  they  had  been  originally  designed  to  provide  water  for 
merely  that  portion  of  the  township  which  lay  within  a  radius  of 
a  mile  from  the  Park.  The  members  of  the  city's  first  board  of 
public  works,  considering  the  future  extension  of  the  system  far 
beyond  its  former  limits,  promptly  appreciated  the  necessity  of 
planning  increased  supply;  and  to  this  end  they  employed  an 
advisory  engineer  in  the  summer  of  1891.  He  recommended 
the  appropriation  by  the  city  of  the  water  and  the  watershed  of 


112  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Pontoosuc  Lake,  and  also  the  driving  of  twenty  wells  in  a  meadow 
near  Sackett  Brook,  whence  the  water  was  to  be  pumped  into  a 
storage  reservoir.  The  city's  officials  decided  instead  to  utihze 
Hathaway  Brook,  a  small  Washington  Mountain  stream,  and, 
under  the  authority  of  a  legislative  act  of  1892,  water  from  this 
brook  was  turned  into  the  mains  in  April,  1893,  It  was  the 
first  addition  made  in  seventeen  years  to  the  sources  of  Pitts- 
field's  water  supply. 

In  the  meantime,  the  city's  consumption  of  water  per  capita 
began  markedly  to  increase.  Meters  set  occasionally  in  business 
blocks  and  manufactories  showed  a  daily  consumption  "not  only 
startling,  but  almost  beyond  belief",  according  to  the  report  of 
the  superintendent  of  the  waterworks  in  18  95.  Successive 
boards  of  public  works  vainly  urged  the  permanent  installation 
of  water  meters.  The  pressure  often  was  alarmingly  low  in 
outlying  districts,  so  low  in  1893  that  it  afforded  no  fire  protection 
at  Pontoosuc  and  Taconic,  Since  1876,  when  the  Sackett  Brook 
dam  and  pipe  line  were  added  to  the  Ashley  waterworks,  the 
consumption  of  water  had  increased  nearly  three-fold,  but  the 
only  addition  in  seventeen  years  to  the  sources  of  supply  had 
been  the  acquisition  of  Hathaway  Brook. 

In  1894,  the  situation  was  somewhat  relieved  by  the  laying 
of  a  large  distributing  main  from  the  bridge  on  Elm  Street  to 
Pontoosuc  village;  and  in  the  following  years  the  city  employed 
another  consulting  engineer,  D.  M.  Greene  of  Troy,  to  con- 
sider the  water  problem.  One  of  the  recommendations  of  Mr. 
Greene's  exhaustive  report  was  speedily  adopted,  and  the  right 
to  use  Mill  Brook,  in  the  northeastern  part  of  the  town  of  Lenox, 
was  obtained  by  the  city,  a  small  reservoir  was  built  thereon, 
and  its  water,  in  1896,  became  available  for  the  mains  of  Pitts- 
field. 

Soon  a  change  of  policy,  or  of  method,  was  for  a  time  discern- 
ible in  the  securing  of  additional  water  supply.  It  was  pointed 
out  that  new  sources  need  not  be  sought,  that  a  large  amount  of 
excellent  water  ran  to  waste  at  certain  seasons  from  the  water- 
shed of  Ashley  Lake,  and  that  the  conservation  of  this  supply 
might  be  more  immediately  desirable  than  a  connection  of  the 
city's  waterworks  with  distant   brooks  of  fickle   flowage.      Ac- 


CONDUCT  OF  MUNICIPAL  AFFAIRS,  1891-1916  113 

cordingly,  official  energies  were  devoted  to  obtaining  an  increased 
storage  capacity  of  the  system  laid  out  by  the  old  fire  district, 
forty  years  before.  Work  on  a  new  and  higher  dam  at  Ashley 
Lake  began  in  February,  1901.  The  original  contractors  aban- 
doned the  undertaking  during  the  next  September,  and  its 
completion  was  therefore  delayed,  but  water  was  finally  turned 
into  the  new  basin  on  December  twenty-third,  1902.  The  dam 
had  added  twenty  acres  to  the  area  of  the  lake  and  increased  its 
capacity  to  about  400,000,000  gallons. 

Nevertheless,  the  members  of  the  board  of  public  works  were 
not  satisfied;  they  were  of  the  opinion  that  "steps,  if  preliminary 
only,  should  be  taken  this  year  for  providing  additional  storage 
capacity  at  the  Ashley  distributing  reservoir"  on  the  brook  be- 
low the  lake.  The  mayor  of  1906,  Allen  H.  Bagg,  repeated  the 
suggestion  insistently.  "It  is  of  the  greatest  importance,"  said 
his  inaugural  address,  "that  attention  be  given  our  water  system, 
in  order  that  additional  storage  be  secured  and  the  useless  waste 

of  water  about  our  city  be  checked To  carefully 

consider  this  entire  problem  and  determine  just  the  right  action 
to  take  is  the  most  important  matter  we  have  this  year  to  meet". 
The  public  officials,  in  short,  were  alive  to  the  public  needs. 
The  report  of  the  board  of  public  works  of  1905  showed  that 
the  per  capita  consumption  of  water  in  Pittsfield  was  150  gallons 
daily,  and  that,  during  the  previous  ten  years,  eighteen  miles  of 
mains  had  been  added  to  Pittsfield's  water  system. 

An  act  of  the  legislature  authorizing  the  city  to  take  the 
water  of  Roaring  Brook  in  Lenox  and  Washington  became  law 
in  1907,  but  Pittsfield  did  not  immediately  utilize  the  privilege. 
Instead,  the  board  of  public  works  pursued  the  policy  of  in- 
creasing the  gravity  pressure  of  established  supply,  and  work 
was  begun  in  1907  on  raising  the  intake  reservoir  dams  of  Ashley, 
Sackett,  Hathaway  and  Mill  Brooks.  The  enlargement  of  these 
intake  reservoirs  was  completed  in  1908,  so  that  the  aggregate 
capacity  of  the  four  was  estimated  to  be  40,000,000  gallons.  Of 
these,  the  principal  one  was  the  new  reservoir  on  Ashley  Brook, 
where  was  built  a  hollow  dam  of  reinforced  concrete,  450  feet 
long  with  a  height  of  forty  feet  at  the  spillway. 

The  taxpayers  were  somewhat  dismayed  on  January  seventh. 


114  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

1909,  when  water  percolating  under  the  foundations  of  this  dam 
caused  a  "washout".  The  structure  was  not  carried  away, 
and  the  damage  was  finally  repaired  without  financial  loss  to  the 
city. 

Public  anxiety  regarding  the  water  supply,  however,  was 
caused  with  more  reason  by  the  local  eflFects  of  two  years  in  suc- 
cession, 1908  and  1909,  of  unusual  drought.  The  supply  in  the 
reservoirs  was  nearly  exhausted.  In  1908,  it  was  necessary  to 
pump  from  Ashley  Lake,  where  the  original  bowl  was  lower  than 
the  outfall,  and  to  divert  temporarily  Roaring  Brook  into  the 
Mill  Brook  supply,  while  in  1909  the  emergency  induced  the 
Massachusetts  board  of  health  to  consent  to  the  pumping  of 
water  from  Onota  Lake  into  the  mains.  The  growing  city  seems 
to  have  been  in  a  situation  only  a  little  short  of  precarious;  and 
William  H.  Maclnnis,  the  mayor  in  1910,  seems  accurately  to 
have  voiced  public  sentiment  when  he  declared  that  the  provision 
of  water  supply  was  then  the  "one  great  and  monumental  duty" 
of  his  municipal  administration.  It  is  right  to  add  that  this 
duty  was  performed  with  judicious  liberality,  and  that  the  out- 
come of  the  city's  long  standing  anxieties  in  this  matter  was  the 
wise  and  energetic  accomplishment  of  the  most  important  and 
considerable  single  public  work  which  Pittsfield  had  achieved. 

The  city  council  of  1910  promptly  passed,  at  the  request  of 
the  mayor,  an  order  authorizing  him  to  appoint  a  committee  of 
citizens,  to  whom  should  be  entrusted  the  comprehensive  task  of 
increasing  the  permanent  water  supply;  and  Mayor  Maclnnis, 
on  January  twenty-ninth,  1910,  accordingly  appointed  William 
H.  Swift,  Edward  A.  Jones,  Daniel  England,  Arthur  H.  Rice, 
and  James  W.  Hull.  William  H.  Swift  was  named  as  chairman. 
Fred  T.  Francis  acted  as  secretary.  The  committee  lost  no 
time.  In  March  it  submitted  a  preliminary  report  to  the  city 
council  advising  the  construction  of  a  large  storage  reservoir  on 
October  Mountain.     The  city  council  adopted  the  report. 

The  location  of  this  proposed  reservoir,  at  the  headwaters  of 
Mill  Brook  in  the  township  of  Washington,  had  been  recom- 
mended to  the  council  of  1909  by  Arthur  B.  Farnham,  then  the 
engineering  agent  of  the  board  of  public  works,  and  the  citizens' 
committee  of  1910  greatly  amplified  Mr.  Farnham's  tentative 


CONDUCT  OF  MUNICIPAL  AFFAIRS,  1891-1916  115 

suggestion.  With  him  as  an  advisory  and  executive  assistant, 
the  members  of  the  committee  consulted  experts,  among  whom 
were  Hiram  A.  Miller  of  Boston,  Prof.  William  H.  Burr  of  New 
York,  and  Prof.  W.  O.  Crosby  of  Boston.  In  August,  1910,  the 
committee's  studious  labor  resulted  in  the  presentation  to  the 
city  council  of  a  second  and  more  elaborate  report,  which  en- 
larged substantially  the  scope  of  the  former  design.  It  advocated 
the  interception  of  five  of  the  tributary  waters  of  Roaring  Brook 
and  their  diversion  by  conduit  and  open  channel  into  Mill 
Brook,  the  building  across  the  Mill  Brook  gorge  on  October 
Mountain  of  a  masonry  and  concrete  dam,  about  900  feet  long, 
100  feet  high,  and  with  a  maximum  thickness  of  68  feet,  and  the 
preparation  behind  it  of  a  storage  reservoir  to  have  a  capacity  of 
440,000,000  gallons  and  a  catchment  area  of  about  four  square 
miles.  In  the  committee's  judgment,  the  execution  of  this 
scheme  would  double  the  existing  water  supply. 

Adverse  criticism  mildly  excited  itself.  Not  a  few  public- 
spirited  citizens  were  startled  by  the  probable  cost  of  the  enter- 
prise, which  was  informally  estimated  to  be  in  the  neighborhood 
of  $750,000,  inclusive  of  the  expenditure  for  land  and  water 
rights,  for  the  reconstruction  of  a  mile  of  highway,  and  for  pipe 
lines.  It  was  honestly  apprehended  by  some  people  that  so 
large  a  reservoir  on  the  mountainside  could  never  be  filled. 
Furthermore,  with  the  natural  reservoirs  of  Richmond  Pond,  of 
Onota,  or  of  Pontoosuc  Lake,  nearer  at  hand,  why  spend  so  much 
money  to  build  an  artificial  reservoir  five  miles  from  the  Park? 

The  committee,  however,  was  fortified  by  solid  argument, 
and  its  conclusions  had  been  reached  with  exceptional  fore- 
thought. Engineers  of  high  reputation,  and  the  state  board  of 
health  as  well,  had  approved  the  details  of  the  plan;  and  it  was 
obvious  that  the  watershed  of  the  proposed  reservoir  could  be 
guarded  against  pollution  more  readily  and  economically  than 
could  that  of  a  lake  nearer  the  expanding  residential  district. 
Finally,  a  quarry  not  far  from  the  site  of  the  proposed  dam  was 
owned  by  the  city,  from  which  it  was  believed  stone  could  be 
taken  suitable  in  quality  and  quantity. 

The  design  was  affirmed  by  the  municipal  government,  and 
by  it,  on  November  seventh,  1910,  the  committee  was  authorized 


116  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

to  execute  the  project.  In  the  meantime,  the  mayor  had  pro- 
cured authority  for  the  city  to  assume  the  bonded  indebtedness 
immediately  necessary.  The  successful  bidders  for  the  contract 
of  building  the  dam  were  Winston  and  Company  of  New  York, 
who  began  work  in  January  of  1911.  The  working  plans  re- 
quired among  other  tasks  the  clearing  of  forty-six  acres  of  land, 
the  excavation  of  94,000  cubic  yards  of  earth  and  rock,  and  the 
construction  of  47,000  cubic  yards  of  masonry.  Universal  ac- 
ceptance was  promptly  and  willingly  given  to  the  popular  sug- 
gestion that  the  new  reservoir  should  bear  the  name  of  Arthur  B. 
Farnham,  the  engineer  who  had  suggested  its  site  and  had  as- 
sisted in  planning  its  details. 

Death  removed  one  member  of  the  committee,  James  W. 
Hull,  on  February  second,  1911;  the  resulting  vacancy  remained 
unfilled. 

The  committee  had  engaged  Hiram  A.  Miller  of  Boston  to 
serve  as  its  chief  engineer  of  construction,  and  had  made  an  ar- 
rangement with  the  board  of  public  works,  whereby  its  clerical 
business,  as  well  as  much  of  its  engineering  labor,  was  done  in  the 
office  of  the  board.  The  progress  of  the  contractors  seems  to 
have  been  watched  by  the  committee  with  unusual  vigilance. 
The  most  important  metal  work  for  the  dam  and  conduits  was 
made  "expressly  for  the  city  under  inspection  at  the  place  of 
manufacture",  according  to  the  committee's  report.  "All  the 
cement  used  was  inspected  at  the  mill  and  a  sample  from  each 
carload  was  tested  after  it  arrived  at  the  New  Lenox  railroad 
station.  The  mixing  of  the  concrete,  the  masonry  work  on  the 
dam,  the  work  on  the  conduits,  and  in  fact  all  the  work  of  the 
contractors  was  done  under  constant  and  efficient  supervision. 
The  sanitary  condition  of  the  camps  was  watched,  the  camps  be- 
ing visited  regularly  by  a  physician  employed  by  the  city. 
No  deaths  occurred  as  the  result  of  lack  of  care  or  bad  conditions 
in  the  camps  or  elsewhere  on  the  work,  and  there  was  no  loss  of 
life  from  accident.  The  water  supply  for  the  reservoir  was  re- 
peatedly examined  by  the  State  Board  of  Health,  and  approved, 
and  the  committee  had  an  independent  bacteriological  examina- 
tion made  of  the  water  before  turning  over  the  reservoir  to  the 
Board  of  Public  Works."     The  daily  measuring,  laying  out,  and 


CONDUCT  OF  MUNICIPAL  AFFAIRS,  1891-1916  117 

recording  the  work  of  the  contractors  gave  constant  employment 
to  the  committee's  assistant  engineers,  for  whom  was  equipped  a 
boarding  house  and  oflfice  near  the  reservoir.  The  conscientious 
care,  in  short,  bestowed  upon  the  undertaking  was  proportionate 
to  its  great  importance  to  the  public. 

The  Farnham  dam  and  reservoir  were  completed  on  Novem- 
ber twenty-second,  1912.  During  the  following  year,  this  addi- 
tion to  the  water  system  was  proved  to  be  amply  successful, 
and  the  actual  impoundage  of  water  in  all  of  the  city's  reservoirs 
amounted  approximately  to  800,000,000  gallons  according  to  the 
annual  report  of  the  board  of  public  works  in  1913.  A  statement 
of  the  special  committee,  made  on  November  first,  1913,  showed 
that  the  cost  of  the  additional  waterworks  had  been  $781,349.78, 
of  which  about  one-third  was  cost  of  pipe  Hues.  Public  opinion 
applauded  the  committee,  and  with  reason;  for  through  the  effi- 
cient labor  of  its  members  the  city's  water  supply  had  been  so 
increased  that  the  maximum  quantity  of  water  in  storage,  with 
the  run-off  from  the  brooks,  would  yield  an  average,  even  in  a 
series  of  dry  years,  of  5,500,000  gallons  a  day. 

The  inception,  then,  of  three  municipal  utilities  of  conse- 
quence— namely,  a  sewer  system,  a  system  of  paved  streets,  and 
an  increased  water  supply — was  accomplished  in  Pittsfield,  be- 
tween 1891  and  1912,  not  by  the  usual  agencies  of  a  city  govern- 
ment but  by  special  boards  or  commissions,  erected  each  for  a 
specific  purpose.  This  purpose  having  been  fulfilled,  the  board 
of  public  works  assumed,  or  re-assumed,  the  control  of  the  public 
properties  involved,  and  the  duty  of  maintaining  them  on  a  scale 
suitable  to  the  public  needs. 

The  burden  shouldered  by  many  of  the  boards  of  public 
works,  during  the  first  quarter-century  of  the  city's  existence, 
was  unusually  heavy.  To  meet  with  justice  the  demands  of  a 
growing  community  by  means  of  annual  appropriations  allowed 
from  often  overstrained  municipal  funds,  required  pertinacity; 
and  the  recorded  figures  indicate  continuous  effort  during  this 
period.  The  humble  item  of  street  hydrants,  for  example,  is 
significant,  for  of  these  there  were  ninety-four  in  1891,  and  573  in 
1915.  In  1891  there  were  256  electric  street  lights;  in  1915  there 
were  1,563.     Between  1901  and  1915  the  total  length  of  concrete 


118  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

sidewalks  increased  from  twenty-four  to  forty-two  miles,  that  of 
surface  water  drains  from  five  to  fourteen  miles,  and  that  of  water 
mains  from  sixty -four  to  one  hundred  and  twelve  miles,  while  in 
the  same  brief  period  the  number  of  crosswalks  rose  from  356 
to  634.  Only  a  part  of  the  activities  of  the  boards  may  be  in- 
ferred from  these  figures.  Pittsfi eld's  growth  caused  the  fre- 
quent grading  and  location  of  new  streets;  and  the  rebuilding 
of  bridges,  made  essential  by  heavier  traffic  and  changed  methods 
of  conveyance,  was  at  the  same  time  an  unusual  duty.  In  1905, 
the  first  concrete  bridge  in  Pittsfield  was  built  across  the  Housa- 
tonic  at  West  Street,  and  its  then  novel  mode  of  construction, 
as  well  as  its  grace  of  lines,  attracted  much  notice. 

The  city's  board  of  public  works  of  three  members  was 
chosen,  according  to  the  original  charter,  by  the  city  council. 
The  men  who  held  this  office  were:  Edward  D.  Jones  (1891- 
1899),  Joseph  H.  Daly  (1891-1895),  Hiram  B.  Wellington  (1891), 
Hezekiah  S.  Russell  (1892-1894),  John  M.  Lee  (1895),  John  H. 
Manning  (1896-1899),  James  L.  Bacon  (1896-1903),  Franklin  A. 
Smith  (1900-1903),  George  W.  Bailey  (1900-1903),  Jeremiah  M. 
Linnehan  (1904-1911),  Charles  K.  Ferry  (1904-1906),  Frank 
Howard  (1904-1911),  Chester  E.  Gleason  (1907-1911),  and  Jay 
P.  Barnes  (1912-1914).  Maurice  J.  Madden,  Patrick  J.  Flynn, 
and  Eugene  H.  Robbins  constituted  the  board  in  1915,  of  whom 
Messrs.  Madden  and  Flynn  first  served  in  1912,  and  Mr.  Robbins 
in  1915. 

One  of  the  minor  tasks  of  the  board  was  the  adaptation  of 
the  town  building,  erected  on  Park  Square  in  1832,  to  the  re- 
quirements of  a  city  hall.  Brick  additions  have  been  built  on  its 
north  side;  but  its  southern  exterior  has  remained  practically 
unchanged  for  more  than  eighty  years. 

The  city  inherited  from  the  town  three  tracts  of  land  dedi- 
cated to  public  use  as  parks — the  Common  on  First  Street,  Bur- 
bank  Park  at  Onota  Lake,  and  the  Park  at  the  meeting  point  of 
the  four  main  streets;  and  to  these  should  be  added  the  land  on 
South  Street,  left  vacant  in  1895  by  the  burning  of  the  high 
school.  The  development  of  this  nucleus  of  a  park  system,  in 
charge  of  the  city  council,  does  not  appear  for  several  years  to 
have  excited   much   popular  interest.     In   1905,   however,   the 


CONDUCT  OF  MUNICIPAL  AFFAIRS,  1891-1916  119 

Common  was  partly  equipped  as  a  playground  and  provided 
with  walks,  benches,  and  shade  trees,  and  thereto  was  moved  a 
band  stand  from  a  triangular  plot  which  until  then  it  occupied  in 
front  of  the  Athenaeum.  In  1906,  the  city  purchased  seventy- 
six  acres  next  northerly  of  the  land  which  it  already  owned  on 
the  shore  of  Onota  Lake,  raising  its  holdings  there  to  about  190 
acres.  In  1910,  the  city  bought  a  parcel  of  land  south  of  its 
former  high  school  site,  on  South  Street,  and  graded  the  entire 
area  of  three  acres  for  use  as  a  small  common. 

Kelton  B.  Miller,  in  1910,  conveyed  to  the  city  a  tract  of 
land  at  Springside,  for  which  the  consideration  named  in  the  deed 
was  "the  affection  I  bear  to  the  City  of  Pittsfield".  The  condi- 
tions of  the  conveyance  were  that  the  city  should  acquire  certain 
land  adjacent  to  this  tract  and  should  maintain  forever  and 
reasonably  improve  the  whole  for  the  enjoyment  of  the  public. 
By  the  city  these  conditions  were  gratefully  accepted,  so  that 
Pittsfield  became  the  owner  of  the  pleasant  ten  acres  of  land 
then  known  as  Abbot  Park,  and  so  named  in  honor  of  Rev. 
Charles  E.  Abbot,  who  conducted  a  boys'  school  nearby  from 
1856  to  1866.  Within  a  few  years,  Mr.  Miller  added  substantial- 
ly to  his  original  gift.  The  first  name  of  the  park  seems  soon  to 
have  slipped  into  disuse,  and  the  title  "Springside  Park"  to  have 
been  oiSficially  substituted  for  it. 

In  1913  the  mayor  appointed  a  park  commission  of  five  mem- 
bers, who  chose  Fred  T.  Francis  as  chairman,  and  to  whom  were 
intrusted  the  maintenance  and  development  of  Pittsfield's  sys- 
tem of  parks;  and  in  that  year  the  commission  began  proceed- 
ings which  soon  resulted  in  the  acquirement  for  the  city  of  ten 
acres  of  woodland  on  the  south  shore  of  Pontoosuc  Lake.  Va- 
rious small  plots  at  the  intersections  of  streets  were  by  the  com- 
mission protected  and  in  appearance  improved. 

Of  much  more  vital  importance  was  the  maintenance  of  the 
city's  public  playgrounds,  which  the  commission  assumed  in 
conjunction  with  a  Park  and  Playground  Association  of  private 
citizens.  As  has  been  heretofore  mentioned,  the  provision  of  a 
system  of  public  playgrounds  was  initiated  by  this  association  in 
1911.  Pittsfield  was  among  the  first  cities  in  the  Commonwealth 
to  accept  by  vote  a  statutory  referendum  authorizing  municipal 


120  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

appropriations  for  playground  purposes.  The  city's  annual 
appropriation,  after  1912,  was  nearly  doubled  by  private  sub- 
scription and  other  agencies.  The  principal  playgrounds  es- 
tablished, equipped  with  apparatus,  and  supervised  by  pro- 
fessional directors,  were  on  Columbus  Avenue  (the  "William  Pitt 
Playground"),  at  Springside,  Russell's,  and  Pontoosuc;  and  the 
Common  became  a  playground  legally  when  the  association  was 
organized. 

The  Balance  Rock  trust,  organized  by  Kelton  B.  Miller  in 
1910,  had  for  its  object  "to  preserve  Balance  Rock  and  the  land 
in  connection  therewith  as  a  public  park,  as  a  place  for  the  study 
of  and  experiments  in  forestry,  and  as  a  resort  for  sightseers  and 
students  of  nature,  and  for  other  public  purposes."  Twenty-six 
public-spirited  citizens  of  Pittsfield  contributed  to  the  trust 
fund,  whereby  was  purchased  the  picturesque,  wooded  tract  of 
land  in  Lanesborough,  upon  which  the  curious  bowlder,  known 
of  old  as  "Rolling  Rock,"  is  to  be  seen.  The  trustees,  by  unani- 
mous consent  of  the  contributors,  were  directed  in  1916  to  convey 
the  property  to  the  city,  and  it  thus  became  a  part  of  the  city's 
park  system. 

Points  of  noteworthy  historical  interest  seem  not  to  be  pre- 
sented by  the  conduct  of  some  other  departments  of  Pittsfield's 
municipal  administration,  however  important,  such  as  those  di- 
rected by  the  boards  of  assessors,  the  overseers  of  the  poor,  the 
boards  of  health,  the  license  commissioners,  and  the  city  solici- 
tors. The  first  city  solicitor,  in  1891  was  Walter  F.  Hawkins, 
and  the  other  lawyers  who  served  the  city  in  that  capacity  during 
its  first  quarter-century  were  John  F.  Noxon,  John  C.  Crosby, 
Milton  B.  Warner,  James  Fallon,  and  John  J.  Whittlesey.  The 
city  clerks  have  been  Kelton  B.  Miller,  Edward  Cain,  Edward  C. 
Hill,  J.  Ward  Lewis,  Ernest  Johnson,  John  Barker,  Alfred  C. 
Daniels  and  Norman  C.  Hull. 

While  the  charter  did  not  allow  to  the  mayor  direct  power  in 
the  physical  improvement  of  the  city,  nevertheless  he  was  often 
able  to  exert  a  potent  influence  in  these  matters  of  public  welfare. 
Thus  the  mayor,  although  charged  by  law  primarily  with  execu- 
tive duties,  was  at  times  in  a  position  to  assume,  with  benefit  to 
the  city,  some  other  functions,  of  which  not  the  least  important 


CONDUCT  OF  MUNICIPAL  AFFAIRS,  1891-1916  121 

was  that  of  an  informative  agent  for  the  voters,  or,  it  may  almost 
be  said,  that  of  a  municipal  watchman. 

In  the  twenty-five  years  from  1891  to  1916,  thirteen  men 
held  the  office  of  mayor  of  Pittsfield,  elected  annually.  Their 
names  and  years  of  service  were:  Charles  E.  Hibbard  (1891), 
Jabez  L.  Peck  (1892  and  1893),  John  C.  Crosby  (1894  and  1895), 
Walter  F.  Hawkins  (1896  and  1897),  William  W.  Whiting  (1898 
and  1899),  Hezekiah  S.  Russell  (1900  and  1901),  Daniel  England 
(1902),  Harry  D.  Sisson  (1903  and  1904),  Allen  H.  Bagg  (1905, 
1906,  and  1907),  WilHam  H.  Maclnnis  (1908,  1909,  and  1910), 
Kelton  B.  Miller  (1911  and  1912),  Patrick  J.  Moore  (1913  and 
1914),  and  George  W.  Faulkner  (1915).  Mr.  Faulkner  was  re- 
elected in  1915.  The  popular  choice  for  mayor  was  usually  ex- 
pressed by  a  good-sized  majority,  although  at  the  city  election  in 
1910  the  office  for  1911  was  awarded  by  a  preponderance  of  only 
twelve  votes.  An  alignment  according  to  national  political 
parties  shows  that  the  Republican  mayoralty  candidate  was 
fourteen  times  successful  at  the  polls  and  the  Democratic,  eleven. 

Problems  of  municipal  finance  and  economy  offered  them- 
selves to  the  mayors  of  Pittsfield  during  these  years  with  an 
insistence  probably  exceptional  among  New  England  cities; 
and  they  were  called  upon  to  scrutinize,  and,  so  far  as  they 
could  do  so  under  the  charter,  to  influence  the  action  of  the  city 
council,  in  situations  also  somewhat  exceptional,  because  of  the 
conditions  which  were  created  properly  by  the  local  activities  of 
powerful  absentee  corporations,  and  which  were  novel  in  the 
city's  experience.  The  annual  salary  attached  to  the  office  was 
one  thousand  dollars.  With  one  or  two  exceptions,  the  thirteen 
mayors  mentioned  were  active  business  men  or  lawyers  in  prac- 
tice, and  were  not  permitted  by  their  personal  circumstances  to 
devote  themselves  exclusively  to  public  duties. 

The  financial  development  of  Pittsfield's  municipal  affairs, 
with  which  the  mayors  were  thus  identified,  may  be  inferred,  in 
part  at  least,  from  the  varying  state  of  the  public  indebtedness. 
In  1891,  the  town  and  fire  district  indebtedness,  less  the  sinking 
fund,  was  $332,225.89,  which  was  assumed  by  the  new  city  on 
the  day  of  its  birth.  On  January  first,  1916,  the  debt  of  the  city 
was  $2,847,577.50. 


122  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Administrators  of  local  government  in  Pittsfield  were  not  ad- 
dicted to  the  habit  either  of  lecturing  the  public  or  of  complain- 
ing of  their  difficulties.  Nevertheless,  their  reports  reiterate  a  cer- 
tain admonition  so  often  that  it  is  worthy  of  remark,  not  because 
the  municipal  imprudence  which  it  was  designed  to  correct  is  at 
all  uncommon,  but  because  Pittsfield's  town  and  city  officials 
warned  the  community  against  it  with  uncommon  persistence. 
In  their  public  recommendations,  no  general  policy  has  been  re- 
prehended so  constantly  as  has  been  that  which  delays  annual 
expenditure  for  permanent  improvements  until,  under  pressure 
of  necessity,  a  large  financial  outlay  must  be  made  in  a  brief 
period.  Thus  the  school  committee  of  1879,  when  land  for 
several  new  schoolhouses  was  an  immediate  need,  admitted  the 
uneconomic  failure  of  the  town  to  provide  school  sites  one  or  two 
at  a  time;  and  the  committee's  report  added:  "Well  will  it  be 
for  our  reputation  and  our  children's  purses,  if  accusations  of  a 
similar  lack  of  foresight  lie  not  as  truly  against  this  generation". 
Thus  eighteen  years  later,  the  mayor  of  1897  said  in  his  inaugural 
address:  "We  shall  not  be  justified  in  seeking  for  ourselves  a 
fleeting  reputation  for  economy  at  the  expense  of  coming  years"; 
and  thus  the  mayor  of  1903,  while  discussing  the  cost  of  street 
paving,  said  to  the  members  of  the  city  government:  "Had  the 
foresight  and  wisdom  of  the  honorable  gentlemen  who  have  pre- 
ceded me  been  favorably  acted  upon  at  the  time,  Pittsfield 
would  today  be  enjoying  the  fruits  of  her  public  spirit,  and  the 
question  of  paving,  with  the  consequent  debt,  would  have  been  a 
thing  of  the  past". 

Instances  of  similar  public  counsel  abound;  and  if  Pittsfield's 
municipal  resources  were  sometimes  overweighted  temporarily 
because  of  the  community's  past  failure  to  look  ahead,  such  a 
failure  seems  seldom  to  have  been  chargeable  to  lack  of  watchful- 
ness on  the  part  of  the  chief  officials  of  town  and  city. 

The  annals  of  Pittsfield  before  the  year  1916  record  the  deaths 
of  three  men  among  the  thirteen  whom  the  city  called  to  the 
position  of  its  chief  magistrate.  Jabez  L.  Peck,  mayor  in  1892 
and  1893,  died  April  fifth,  1895.  He  was  born  in  Pittsfield,  De- 
cember seventh,  1826.  His  father.  Captain  Jabez  Peck,  came 
to  Pittsfield  from  Lenox  in  1816.     In  1864,  Jabez  L.  Peck  became 


CONDUCT  OF  MUNICIPAL  AFFAIRS,  1891-1916  123 

the  sole  owner  of  a  manufactory  of  cotton  warp  on  Onota  Brook, 
having  purchased  the  interests  therein  of  his  father  and  of  his 
uncle.  In  the  same  year  he  built  a  brick  mill,  in  partnership 
with  J.  P.  Kilbourn,  and  in  1868  he  bought  out  his  partner  and 
utilized  the  upper  mill  for  the  manufacture  of  flannels.  The 
prosperity  of  both  of  these  enterprises  was  long  continued.  In 
1890,  the  Peck  Manufacturing  Company  was  incorporated,  of 
which  Mr.  Peck  remained  president  until  his  death.  He  was 
president  also  of  the  Berkshire  Mutual  Fire  Insurance  Company, 
and  a  director  of  the  Agricultural  Bank,  of  the  Berkshire  Life 
Insurance  Company,  and  of  the  Berkshire  County  Savings  Bank. 

The  responsibilities  of  successful  business  and  of  financial 
trust  by  no  means  overstrained  Mr.  Peck's  singular  energy.  It 
found  other  outlets,  in  the  performance,  for  example,  of  duties  so 
oddly  divergent  as  those  of  a  Sunday  school  superintendent  and 
of  the  chief  engineer  of  Pittsfield's  volunteer  fire  department. 
He  was  a  deacon,  and  a  conscientious,  important  officer,  of  the 
First  Church,  and  his  individual  effort  was  for  many  years  in- 
valuable to  the  mission  and  Sunday  school  from  which  the  Pil- 
grim Memorial  Church  was  developed.  From  holding  public 
office  he  was  disinclined;  but  when  he  assumed  it,  he  was  therein 
diligent  and  masterful,  as  he  was  in  all  his  undertakings.  "Su- 
perfluous force  in  him",  said  truthfully  his  friend  and  pastor, 
"seemed  always  struggling  to  expend  itself.  He  walked — when 
he  walked — as  if  driven  onward  by  power  he  could  not  with- 
stand. When  he  rode,  he  rode  as  if  demons  of  speed  were  after 
him.     His  mental  movements  were  as  quick  and  strong." 

Such  precipitate  personal  force  in  a  community  may  be  un- 
productive, unless  controlled;  but  Mr.  Peck's  Gallic  impetuosity 
was  so  governed  by  his  Yankee  common  sense  that  the  Pittsfield 
of  his  generation  gained  by  it.  An  efficient  and  frequent  helper 
of  what  was  good,  he  wanted  to  have  his  own  way,  but  he  was 
accessible,  neighborly,  catholic;  no  man  in  Pittsfield  was  more 
generally  called  by  his  nickname.  For  the  opinion  which  people 
might  have  of  him,  he  seemed  to  care  little.  Like  many  Pitts- 
field manufacturers  of  his  day,  he  had  learned  in  business  to 
stand  on  his  own  feet,  and  his  attitude  anywhere  was  similarly 
independent.     He  formed  his  own  judgments;    they   satisfied 


124  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

him;  and  he  both  expressed  them  and  sought  their  fulfillment 
with  swift  and  self-confident  zeal. 

Mr.  Peck  represented  his  ward  as  alderman  in  Pittsfield's 
first  city  council,  and  immediately  thereafter  he  was  twice  elected 
mayor.  The  municipal  period  in  which  he  served  was  one  of 
experiment.  It  was  fortunate  for  the  new  form  of  government 
on  trial  at  this  time  that  it  possessed  in  Mr.  Peck  a  leader  whose 
reliability  for  accomplishment  had  already  been  tested  in  his 
birthplace  for  forty  years,  whose  strength  of  character  was  so 
familiar  to  his  fellow  citizens,  and  whose  personality  was  so 
picturesque  and  compelling. 

William  W.  Whiting  was  mayor  in  1898  and  1899.  He  was 
born  at  Bath,  New  York,  on  May  seventh,  1847,  and  came  in 
1866  to  Pittsfield,  where  he  spent  the  rest  of  his  life  in  the  business 
of  a  wholesale  dealer  in  writing  paper.  Under  the  old  town 
government  he  was  a  selectman  in  1885,  1886,  and  1887,  and 
he  was  otherwise  conspicuous  in  public  affairs  as  a  favorite 
moderator  at  town  and  fire  district  meetings,  and  as  an  excep- 
tionally capable  collector  of  taxes.  He  was  fond  in  those  days 
of  a  political  clash;  on  the  floor  of  the  town  hall  or  at  a  stormy 
village  caucus,  he  could  lead  tumultuous  followers  with  effect 
and  courage;  and  his  performance  of  oflBcial  duty  was  charac- 
terized by  the  same  sort  of  dogged  vigor. 

Mr.  Whiting's  national  pride  was  spirited.  His  tenure  of 
the  mayoralty  included  the  exciting  period  of  our  war  with 
Spain,  and  he  was  eager  and  effectively  watchful  that  Pittsfield 
should  fail  at  no  point  in  patriotism  and  the  display  of  it.  The 
good  name  of  the  city  was  constantly  dear  to  him.  Other 
mayors  may  have  brought  to  the  office  more  initiative  force  and 
mental  facility,  but  it  is  apparent  that  his  enthusiasm  and  simple 
resolve  to  serve  the  city  with  the  utmost  of  his  skill  and  strength 
were  of  no  small  worth  to  the  community.  His  sense  of  duty 
was  tragically  exemplified  by  the  circumstances  of  his  death,  for, 
after  bearing  a  heavy  burden  of  ill  health  during  many  months  of 
official  labor,  he  was  suddenly  prostrated  at  his  desk  in  the  city 
hall,  while  presiding  over  a  meeting;  and  he  died  two  hours 
afterward,  on  August  seventh,   1899. 

Hezekiah  S.  Russell,  mayor  in  1900  and  1901,  was  born  in 


CONDUCT  OF  MUNICIPAL  AFFAIRS,  1891-1916  125 

Pittsfield,  December  seventh,  1835.  He  was  a  son  of  Solomon  L. 
Russell,  and  he  thus  fell  heir  to  a  warm  affection  for  Pittsfield; 
but  in  his  youth  a  spirit  of  adventure  led  him  to  the  western 
frontier  and  to  Australia,  where,  in  the  construction  camps  of 
railroad  and  telegraph  lines,  he  learned  the  ways  of  rugged  men. 
About  the  year  1860,  Mr.  Russell  returned  to  his  native  town 
and  established  a  shop  for  the  manufacture  of  iron  machinery 
and  boilers;  to  this  industry  he  devoted  himself  successfully 
until  1902,  when  he  retired  from  active  business.  In  1887  and 
1888  he  was  one  of  the  town's  selectmen.  He  was  a  member,  in 
1892,  1893,  and  1894,  of  the  city's  board  of  public  works.  He 
died  on  May  twelfth,  1914. 

His  opinions  were  not  pliable;  and  in  governmental  service 
he  was  sometimes  hampered  by  a  kind  of  overpositiveness. 
The  worth  of  his  contributions  to  town  and  city  was  chiefly  prac- 
tical; he  was  likely  to  apply  himself  with  more  contentment  to 
the  execution  than  to  the  determination  of  municipal  plans; 
and  especially  in  the  conduct  of  business  having  to  do  with 
public  improvements  his  integrity  and  workmanlike  sense  were 
of  uncommon  value. 

To  men  of  many  sorts  in  Pittsfield,  Mr.  Russell  was  endeared 
by  a  helpful  kindliness,  by  a  frank  pleasure  in  companionship, 
for  the  social  instinct  was  strong  in  him,  and  by  a  bluff,  but  genial, 
independence  of  speech  and  bearing,  which  was  a  blended  pro- 
duct, perhaps,  of  the  frontier  experience  of  his  youth  and  of  the 
village  democracy  of  his  early  manhood.  In  his  later  years, 
which  were  bright  with  frequent  testimony  of  popular  regard, 
he  represented  the  survival  in  Pittsfield  of  a  distinctive  type  of 
that  New  England  townsman  who  was  imbued  with  a  stalwart 
notion  of  equality,  but  by  nature  courteous,  who  was  sternly 
averse  to  shirking  any  duties  of  a  good  citizen,  but  philosophically 
resolved  at  the  same  time  to  get  due  enjoyment  and  humor  out  of 
life  as  he  w^ent  along. 

The  practical  results  of  the  plan  of  local  government  adopted 
by  Pittsfield  in  1890  were  never,  in  the  first  twenty-five  years  of 
its  operation,  so  unsatisfactory  to  the  citizens  as  to  induce  them 
to  change  it  radically.  In  1895,  upon  the  recommendation  of 
the  city  council,   the  state  legislature  passed  an  act  revising 


126  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Fittsfield's  charter,  but  the  changes  were  not  material,  except 
in  providing  for  the  consolidation  of  the  sewer  commission  and 
the  board  of  public  works,  and  for  an  arrangement  of  electing 
councilmen,  which  insured  constant  membership  in  the  lower 
board  of  some  men  of  at  least  one  year's  experience  in  that  body. 
In  1903  revision  of  the  charter  was  again  agitated,  but  a  com- 
mittee of  members  of  the  city  government  and  of  private  citizens, 
to  which  the  matter  was  referred,  was  apparently  convinced  that 
a  new  charter  was  preferable  to  an  amendment  of  the  existing 
one;  and  accordingly,  in  1904,  the  city  council  obtained  from 
the  legislature  the  passage  of  an  act  which  framed  a  radically 
new  charter,  and  stipulated  that  it  should  be  submitted  to  the 
voters  of  Pittsfield  twice,  if  by  them  rejected  in  the  first  instance. 

The  proposed  charter  of  1904  established  a  city  council  of  a 
single  board  of  twenty-one  aldermen,  of  whom  seven  were  to  be 
chosen  by  the  entire  electorate,  centered  a  large  measure  of  ad- 
ministrative authority  in  the  mayor,  and  delegated  to  the  people 
the  election  of  the  city  clerk,  city  treasurer,  city  auditor,  and 
the  collector  and  assessors  of  taxes.  The  council's  power  to 
grant  public  franchises  was  by  several  provisions  restricted;  an 
effort  was  made  to  separate  more  sharply  the  legislative  and  ex- 
ecutive functions  of  the  municipal  government,  and  to  facilitate 
the  fixing  of  responsibility.  To  the  mayor  was  given  the  power 
of  appointment  for  three  years  of  the  superintendent  of  poor, 
the  board  of  health,  and  the  city  physician,  and  for  one  year  of 
the  city  solicitor  and  a  single  commissioner  of  public  works. 

Both  in  1904  and  in  1905,  this  charter  failed  of  popular  ap- 
proval at  the  polls.  The  fact  seems  to  be  that  the  public  mind 
judged  the  old  charter  to  be  defective  in  one  respect  only.  Ex- 
perience had  shown  that  the  election  of  many  officials  by  a  con- 
current, rather  than  a  joint,  vote  of  both  boards  of  the  city  council 
was  liable  to  result  merely  in  a  deadlock,  which  sometimes  might 
seriously  impede  the  conduct  of  business.  It  was  maintained  in 
1904,  however,  that  this  difficulty  might  be  remedied  more  easily 
than  by  throwing  overboard  the  entire  charter,  under  which  it 
was  possible,  and  by  experimenting  with  innovations  so  com- 
plete as  those  contained  in  the  plan  of  city  government  then  pro- 
posed.    Furthermore,  the  suggested  concentration  of  authority 


CONDUCT  OF  MUNICIPAL  AFFAIRS,  1891-1916  127 

in  the  mayor  and  his  commissioner  of  public  works  was  not  re- 
garded with  general  complacency.  The  negative  votes  against 
the  new  charter  were,  in  1904,  2,229  to  1,457  in  favor,  and  in  1905 
they  were  1,590  to  1,222,  while  in  the  latter  year  there  were  cast 
1,721  blanks.     The  electorate  was  obviously  uninterested. 

In  1910,  however,  a  lively  movement  toward  alteration  of 
the  charter  began,  in  the  course  of  which  was  exhibited  more  sig- 
nificantly the  popular  opinion  of  the  conduct  of  municipal  affairs 
since  the  incorporation  of  the  city.  Having  advised  charter 
revision  in  his  inaugural  address,  the  mayor  of  1910,  William  H. 
Maclnnis,  appointed  by  order  of  the  city  council  a  committee  of 
thirty-three  to  consider  the  subject.  Only  two  of  the  committee 
were  members  of  the  city  government.  Under  the  auspices  of 
the  committee,  a  charter  was  drafted.  Its  salient  features  were 
a  single  board  of  seven  aldermen,  whose  function  was  strictly 
legislative,  and  a  mayor  liberally  invested  with  executive  powers 
and  authority  to  appoint  executive  officers.  This  instrument 
was  endorsed  by  the  city  council,  and  permission  was  sought 
from  the  legislature  to  submit  the  legalization  of  it  to  the  vote  of 
Pittsfield.  The  General  Court,  in  April,  1910,  referred  to  the 
succeeding  legislature  the  petition  of  the  Pittsfield  charter  com- 
mittee, and  further  progress  was  necessarily  delayed. 

Early  in  1911,  another  petition  was  presented  to  the  legis- 
lature by  Pittsfield  citizens  desirous  of  a  commission  form  of 
municipal  government,  wherein  five  commissioners,  elected  at 
large,  should  exercise  all  the  powers  of  the  mayor,  city  council, 
and  board  of  public  works,  and  which  should  embody  the  prin- 
ciples of  popular  referendum  and  initiative,  and  of  the  recall  of 
elective  officers.  On  February  tenth,  1911,  the  legislative  com- 
mittee on  cities  visited  Pittsfield  and  held  a  public  hearing  on 
the  charter  question.  There  the  advocates  of  the  proposed 
charter  of  1910  and  those  of  the  commission  form  offered  their 
claims,  and  ground  was  taken  also  by  a  third  party,  which  ad- 
hered to  the  existing  charter,  with  slight  modifications.  A  bill, 
after  a  somewhat  troubled  experience  in  both  houses  of  the 
General  Court,  was  finally  signed  by  the  governor  on  July  nine- 
teenth, 1911,  by  which  it  was  provided  that  the  adoption  of  one 
of  these  three  plans  of  local  government  should  be  decided  by 
ballot  of  the  voters  of  the  city,  at  the  following  state  election. 


128  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Pittsfield's  discussion  of  the  subject  now  assumed  the  vivacity, 
and  at  times  the  heat,  of  a  rousing  poHtical  campaign.  There 
can  be  little  doubt  either  that  the  people  wished  to  be  informed 
or  that  they  were  informed  as  to  the  merits  and  demerits  of  each 
of  the  three  plans.  In  effect,  however,  the  debate  finally  so 
shaped  itself  that  it  was  a  popular  examination  of  the  working  of 
the  bicameral  charter  in  Pittsfield,  and  of  the  results  there 
achieved  under  it.  Against  the  old  charter  were  advanced  the 
arguments  that  it  fused  legislative  with  executive  authority, 
that  its  two  boards  and  its  method  of  choosing  administrative 
officers  invited  manifestations  of  partisanship  and  factional 
jealousy,  and  that  under  it,  when  things  went  wrong,  the  public 
had  no  means  of  imputing  the  blame  to  the  true  source.  Most  of 
the  voters,  nevertheless,  were  inclined  to  ask  themselves  in  what 
concrete  instance  during  the  twenty  years  under  the  old  charter, 
imperfect  though  it  might  be,  Pittsfield's  municipal  interests  had 
signally  suffered,  and  to  cast  their  ballots  according  to  the  weight 
of  the  answer.  Thus  the  outcome  at  the  polls  in  November, 
1911,  may  be  considered  as  the  community's  judgment,  not 
alone  of  the  comparative  merits  of  the  three  proposed  plans,  but 
of  the  quality  of  municipal  administration  by  Pittsfield  citizen- 
ship. In  favor  of  retaining  the  existing  charter,  so  amended  as 
to  preclude  the  necessity  of  choosing  many  officials  by  concurrent 
vote  of  the  two  boards  of  the  council,  there  were  cast  2,805  ballots, 
while  1,519  voters  opposed  its  readoption.  As  a  secondary 
proposition,  the  commission  form  of  government  was  favored  by 
1,462;  the  single  board  plan,  which  had  become  known  as  the 
Quincy  charter,  received  1,159  affirmative  votes.  The  manner  in 
which  the  threefold  question  was  officially  presented  at  the  polls 
was  not  quite  unambiguous,  but  the  numerical  results  made  it 
clear  that  a  radical  change  of  charter  was  not  deemed  necessary. 

Most  of  the  questions  similarly  submitted  by  authority  of 
the  state  to  the  popular  referendum  in  Pittsfield  have  received 
an  affirmative  decision  by  the  electorate  with  a  regularity  some- 
what curious,  and  with  a  generous  accompaniment  of  blank  bal- 
lots not  gratifying  to  the  ardent  publicist.  Except  in  1893  and 
1894,  the  decision  of  the  city  election  was  in  favor  of  granting 
licenses  for  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquor. 


CONDUCT  OF  MUNICIPAL  AFFAIRS,  1891-1916  129 

The  vote  of  Pittsfield  was  cast  for  the  Democratic  nominee 
for  President  of  the  United  States  at  the  national  election  of 
1892,  and  for  the  Republican  presidential  candidate  in  1896, 
1900,  1904,  1908,  and  1912.  In  1892,  nevertheless,  the  city 
chose  a  Republican  mayor,  and  Democratic  mayors  were  elected 
in  1908  and  in  1912.  So  far  as  sheer  figures  and  dates  are  indica- 
tive, the  intrusion  of  national  politics  into  the  administration  of 
municipal  affairs  was  not  violent;  nor,  indeed,  was  the  operation 
therein  of  any  factional  or  personal  partisanship  so  patently  in- 
jurious as  to  drive  Pittsfield  to  that  needful  self-display  of 
smirched  municipal  linen,  which  is  an  unhappy  episode  in  the 
history  of  too  many  American  cities.  Strife  of  faction  at  Pitts- 
field's  city  hall  has  sometimes  discouraged  competency,  some- 
times impeded  progress,  but  consequences  publicly  and  seriously 
disastrous  have  been  withheld. 


CHAPTER  IX 
SCHOOLS. 

THE  condition  of  PittsJBeld's  public  schools  in  1876,  and  the 
curious  discord  concerning  them  into  which  the  communi- 
ty had  allowed  itself  to  drift,  can  be  understood  only  by 
recalling  some  of  the  town's  previous  experience  in  the  support 
and  management  of  free  education. 

It  is  necessary  in  the  first  place  to  remember  that  for  many 
years  the  public  school  system  in  Pittsfield  had  been  shot  through 
and  through  by  village  politics.  This  was  the  case  in  many  New 
England  towns;  Pittsfield's  case  was  peculiarly  aggravated.  As 
early  as  1781,  the  school  question  was  turned  into  a  battlefield 
for  political  partisans.  The  newly  constituted  state  government 
required  every  town  of  the  size  of  Pittsfield  to  maintain  a  gram- 
mar school  on  penalty  of  indictment  and  fine.  Pittsfield's  im- 
poverished town  government  in  1781  was  Whig,  and  it  failed  to 
comply  with  the  grammar  school  law  for  the  perfectly  good  reason 
of  lack  of  funds.  The  excuse  was  one  which  the  state  authorities 
in  those  days  of  almost  universal  financial  distress  might  readily 
have  accepted;  but  nevertheless  the  Tory  politicians  of  the  vil- 
lage promptly  tried  to  discredit  the  local  Whig  administration  by 
pressing  the  grand  jury  to  indict  the  town  for  non-compliance, 
and  they  inserted  an  article  in  the  town  meeting  warrant  of  1781 
"to  see  if  the  town  will  raise  money  to  set  up  a  grammar  school 
to  save  the  town  from  fine",  A  hot  and  protracted  political 
fight  ensued,  in  which  the  voters  wholly  lost  sight  of  the  educa- 
tional interests  involved.  The  Whig  majority  opposed  a  gram- 
mar school  long  after  it  was  financially  possible,  and  merely  be- 
cause it  was  advocated  by  their  Tory  assailants. 

Thus  at  an  early  period  the  school  question,  according  to  a 
modern  phrase,  "got  into  politics",  whence  it  was  not  destined 
soon  to  emerge.     Pittsfield  was  an  isolated  village,  where  political 


SCHOOLS  131 

feuds  were  bitter  and  inheritable  almost  beyond  belief.  The 
ancient  grammar  school  quarrel  outlived  both  the  old  Whig  and 
Tory  parties;  it  injured  the  cause  of  public  education  for  at  least 
half  a  century;  and  it  was  revived,  with  much  of  its  original 
acrimony,  by  the  local  agitation  in  1849  which  resulted  in  the 
erection  of  the  first  high  school  building. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  too,  that  the  New  England  dis- 
trict system  of  maintenance  and  control  of  the  common  schools 
had  been  exceedingly  popular  in  Pittsfield  and  most  agreeable  to 
the  political  temperament  of  its  people.  Although,  in  1850,  an 
act  of  the  General  Court  had  enabled  any  town  to  abolish  its 
school  districts  and  to  take  possession  of  their  property  under  cer- 
tain prescribed  rules,  Pittsfield  steadfastly  declined  to  do  so.  Not 
until  compelled  by  the  state  legislature  in  1869,  did  the  town  re- 
linquish the  system,  and  then  with  regretful  disapproval  which 
affected  the  popular  mind  for  several  years  thereafter.  In  1871, 
the  legislature  passed  a  law  permitting  towns  in  which  the 
school  district  system  had  been  abolished  by  the  act  of  1869  to 
reinstate  that  system  by  a  two- thirds  vote;  and  the  Pittsfield 
town  meeting  of  that  year  favored  reinstatement  by  a  vote  of 
61  to  37 — only  slightly  less  than  the  requisite  majority.  The 
abandonment  of  independent  school  districts  had  seemed  to 
many  citizens  like  parting  with  an  essential  prerogative  of  self- 
government,  and  in  1876  they  were  still  in  a  hostile  mood  toward 
the  town  system  of  schools  by  which  the  old  system  had  been 
superseded. 

Their  attitude  was  not  unnatural.  Pittsfield  had  thirteen 
school  districts  in  1869,  and  several  of  them  were  as  rich  and 
populous  as  an  ordinary  Berkshire  village.  It  has  been  plausibly 
maintained,  indeed,  that  in  Massachusetts,  until  the  middle  of 
the  last  century,  the  school  district,  and  not  the  town,  was  the 
real  political  unit  of  the  Commonwealth.  In  school  district 
meetings,  many  men  had  learned  their  first  lessons  in  the  trans- 
action of  public  business  and  had  made  their  first  voyage  on  the 
cross  seas  of  public  debate.  The  districts  were,  in  one  sense, 
miniature  republics,  sovereign  states,  and  they  could  not  be 
wiped  out  of  existence  without  provoking  among  their  citizens  a 
fondness  for  criticizing  adversely,   and  perhaps  unjustly,   the 


132  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

results  under  the  central  authority,  which  had  displaced  them. 

Moreover,  the  conduct  of  school  affairs,  for  a  few  years  after 
1869,  was  not  so  manifestly  efficient  and  harmonious  as  to  enlist 
friends  for  the  new  regime,  although  it  was  upheld  by  such  earnest 
committeemen  as  Charles  B.  Redfield  and  William  R.  Plunkett. 
At  the  annual  town  meeting  of  1868,  the  town  instructed  its 
school  committee  of  nine  members  to  employ,  for  the  first  time, 
a  superintendent  of  schools,  and  the  committee  accordingly  en- 
gaged Lebbeus  Scott.  Mr.  Scott  was  a  conscientious  official, 
but  had  he  been  Horace  Mann  himself,  it  is  not  likely  that  his 
efforts  would  have  been  hospitably  acclaimed  by  the  unawed 
electorates  of  the  thirteen  school  districts,  accustomed  to  super- 
intend their  own  concerns.  The  town,  at  the  annual  meeting  of 
1869  and  in  spite  of  a  forcible  appeal  by  James  D.  Colt,  refused 
to  make  an  appropriation  for  the  salary  of  a  superintendent; 
and  the  school  committee  of  that  year  was  compelled  to  put  into 
operation  the  new  system  of  schools  without  the  aid  of  anybody 
who  could  devote  his  entire  time  and  energy  to  the  task. 

In  1871,  however,  the  town  instructed  the  committee  to  em- 
ploy one  of  its  members  as  a  superintendent,  and  Dr.  John  M. 
Brewster  was  selected.  His  period  of  service,  which  continued 
for  five  years,  was  for  him  one  of  stress  and  storm.  Dr.  Brewster, 
in  office,  was  an  idealist,  who  appreciated  fully  the  importance 
of  his  position.  He  was  not  a  pacificator,  capable  of  smoothing 
the  road  for  an  unpopular  innovation.  After  he  had  been  super- 
intendent for  a  year,  the  town  meeting  refused  to  make  provision 
for  his  salary.  Mr.  Redfield  and  Mr.  Plunkett  promptly  de- 
clared that  they  would,  in  that  case,  withdraw  from  the  school 
committee;  and  the  meeting  as  promptly  reconsidered  and  re- 
versed its  vote.  Dr.  Brewster's  salary  by  a  vote  of  the  town  in 
1873  was  fixed  at  $2,000.  The  next  year  it  was  cut  in  half. 
The  committee  again  stood  by  him,  and  in  1875  found  a  way  to 
increase  his  compensation  to  $1,500;  whereupon  the  town,  at  the 
annual  town  meeting  of  1876,  declined  again  to  appropriate 
money  for  the  employment  of  any  superintendent.  Dr.  Brewster 
celebrated  his  retirement  to  private  life  by  telling  his  adversaries, 
in  a  caustic  letter,  exactly  what  he  thought  of  them.  "I  believe," 
he  wrote,  "that  the  majority  of  our  citizens  earnestly  desire  that 


SCHOOLS  133 

their  public  schools  shall  not  continue  to  be  made,  upon  the 
annual  recurrence  of  town  meeting,  mere  toys  and  playthings  in 
the  hands  of  educational  sceptics  and  ultra-economists." 

A  share  of  Dr.  Brewster's  troubles  was  probably  due  to  the 
fact  that  upon  him  devolved  much  of  the  thankless  business  of 
grading  the  former  district  schools.  Before  1869,  all  of  the  com- 
mon schools  in  District  No.  1,  which  included  the  central  portion 
of  the  main  village,  had  been  graded,  with  a  single  exception; 
but  elsewhere  the  ungraded  system  ruled.  That  system  was 
highly  convenient,  because  scholars  of  all  ages  might  always, 
under  it,  attend  the  school  nearest  home.  Educationally,  it  was 
wasteful  of  time  and  effort.  But  it  was  an  inherent  part  of  the 
school  district  plan;  as  such  it  was  long  and  jealously  cherished 
by  public  regard  in  Pittsfield;  and  the  reformer  who  attempted 
to  eradicate  it  could  not  hope  for  popularity.  Nevertheless,  a 
comprehensive  scheme  of  gradation  was  initiated  in  1874,  and 
two  years  later  only  one-seventh  of  the  pupils  attended  ungraded 
schools. 

Thus  the  town's  committee  to  which  was  entrusted  the  man- 
agement of  public  education  in  1876  faced  a  difficult  problem.  A 
long  series  of  wrangles  over  school  affairs  had  made  public  opin- 
ion of  them  irritable.  That  antagonism  to  progressive  educa- 
tional methods,  which  must  be  expected  anywhere,  had  been  in 
Pittsfield  exaggerated.  Not  only  had  the  town,  somewhat  angri- 
ly, denied  to  the  committee  a  professional  superintendent,  but 
also  it  had  reduced  the  total  appropriation  for  the  maintenance 
of  schools  to  $24,600,  a  sum  less  by  $6,400  than  that  voted  in  the 
previous  year.  The  sudden  retrenchment  cannot  be  ascribed 
solely  to  hard  times. 

A  record  of  the  school  year  ending  in  1876  shows  that  there 
were  then  in  the  high  school  65  pupils  and  three  teachers;  in  the 
four  grammar  schools,  333  pupils  and  twelve  teachers;  in  the 
eleven  intermediate  schools,  533  pupils  and  fourteen  teachers;  in 
the  fourteen  primary  schools,  881  pupils  and  fifteen  teachers; 
and  in  the  eleven  ungraded  schools,  314  pupils.  The  number  of 
teachers  in  the  ungraded  schools  is  not  stated.  Presumably  it 
was  eleven,  which  would  make  the  aggregate  number  of  teachers 
fifty-five.     The  membership  of  pupils  in  the  forty-one  schools 


134  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

was  2,126,     There  were  twenty-five  schoolhouses  owned  by  the 
town. 

Nothing  can  be  more  obvious  than  that  a  close  and  daily 
supervision  was  essential  in  order  to  obtain  even  passable  effi- 
ciency from  a  system  of  this  size.  Except  in  high  schools  and 
less  frequently  in  grammar  schools,  the  business  of  a  teacher  in 
public  schools  had  hardly  attained  the  dignity  of  a  permanent 
profession.  There  had  been  many  faithful  and  competent 
teachers  in  the  district  schools,  but  stability  of  personnel  and  of 
method  had  been  lacking.  The  report  of  the  school  committee 
of  Pittsfield  in  1839  noted  as  an  unusual  fact  that  the  same  teach- 
er had  officiated  in  one  of  the  district  schools  for  so  many  as 
three  successive  terms.  Although  nominally  unified,  the  public 
schools  of  Pittsfield  in  1876  still  needed  the  coherence  imparted 
by  a  fixed  and  harmonious  control,  and,  lacking  the  advantage  of 
it  then,  the  whole  cause  of  free  education  might  have  suffered 
greatly  for  several  years,  because  of  the  peculiarly  sensitive  state 
of  the  popular  mind. 

By  good  fortune,  a  controlling  hand  was  found  of  the  right 
sort.  The  chairman  of  the  school  committee  of  1876  was  William 
B.  Rice.  As  chairman  also  of  the  executive  sub-committee,  Mr. 
Rice  assumed  in  effect  all  of  the  duties  of  a  superintendent  of 
schools,  and  he  performed  them  with  discretion  and  diligence. 
In  1877,  the  town  gave  the  committee  authority  to  employ  a 
superintendent  at  a  salary  of  $800,  but  the  place  could  not  be 
filled  at  that  figure,  and  Mr.  Rice  continued  to  act  as  superin- 
tendent. In  1879  he  accepted  the  office  formally,  and  held  it 
until  1885,  when  he  was  succeeded  therein  by  Thomas  H.  Day,  a 
member  of  the  school  committee. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  overrate  the  value  of  Mr.  Rice's  con- 
nection with  the  public  schools  of  Pittsfield  at  this  critical  stage 
of  their  development.  He  was  a  practical  man,  whom  the  people 
already  knew  well,  and  he  was  far  removed  from  the  type  of  re- 
forming faddist,  so  abhorred  by  the  hard-headed  voters  of  a 
town  meeting.  Nevertheless,  his  realization  was  complete  of 
the  need  of  school  reform,  of  progress,  and  of  advanced  methods  of 
instruction;  and  that  Pittsfield  might  obtain  them  he  kept  ham- 
mering away  with  a  pertinacity  which  seemed  to  defy  discourage- 


SCHOOLS  135 

ment.  Sentences  from  his  report  of  1878  indicate  the  liberal 
breadth  of  his  ideas  of  public  education.  "To  assign  lessons  and 
hear  recitations  is  barely  to  touch  the  outside  of  the  true  sphere 

of  the  teacher's  work It  seems  to  me  that  many,  in 

discussing  the  public  school  question,  almost  entirely  lose  sight 
of  the  great  question,  why  public  schools  should  exist  at  all.  .  . 
To  look  upon  the  public  schools  as  designed  merely  to  fit  children 
to  get  on  in  life,  is  to  underestimate  the  immensely  important 
interests  which  the  public  has  in  their  maintenance." 

Retaining  always  his  keen,  benignant,  and  salutary  regard 
for  free  education,  William  B.  Rice  served  Pittsfield  as  a  school 
committeeman  from  1872  to  1884  and  from  1891  to  1911.  The 
public  schools  of  town  and  city  have  never  had  a  more  devoted 
and  helpful  friend. 

The  superintendency  of  Mr.  Rice  over  the  town's  school  af- 
fairs marked  the  beginning  of  a  beneficial  change,  not  only  in  the 
internal  workings  of  the  system,  but  also  in  the  willingness  with 
which  the  voters  supported  it.  He  recommended  a  liberal  com- 
pliance with  the  statute  concerning  the  provision  of  the  free 
textbooks  in  1878,  and  the  town  meeting  of  1879  authorized  the 
committee  so  to  issue  them.  The  annual  appropriations  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  schools  were  slowly  but  steadily  increased. 
It  was  not  so  easy,  however,  to  obtain  appropriations  for  new 
schoolhouses. 

The  crusade  which  broke  down  much  of  the  public  apathy 
concerning  the  town's  schoolhouses  was  led  by  James  W.  Hull, 
who  was  chairman  of  the  school  committee  from  1877  to  1882, 
and  it  was  strongly  promoted  by  his  associates.  Their  attack 
upon  this  indifference  at  the  town  meeting  of  1878  was  resolute 
and  brisk.  Several  schoolhouses  were  overcrowded,  and,  from 
a  sanitary  point  of  view,  almost  medieval.  The  town  meeting 
serenely  declined  to  take  action.  In  the  following  autumn,  the 
work  of  the  Orchard  Street  school  was  interrupted  by  a  dangerous 
epidemic  of  disease  which  was  clearly  attributable  to  conditions 
in  the  building.  The  committee's  indignant  reference  to  the 
building  in  its  report  of  1879  made  a  brief  excursion  into  the 
ironical.  "Towns  and  committees"  it  declared,  "have  no  power 
to  set  aside  natural  law."     The  town  meeting  of  the  same  year, 


136  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

whether  stung  by  this  shaft  or  not,  voted  money  for  a  new 
schoolhouse  on  Orchard  Street.  The  committee  in  charge  pro- 
vided a  brick  structure  of  a  single  story  and  four  rooms,  which, 
with  additions  made  in  1895,  still  serves  the  city.  The  erection 
of  this  building  and  in  1876  that  of  the  high  school  building  on 
South  Street,  which  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1895,  signalized  the 
commencement  of  a  new  era  of  schoolhouse  design  and  construc- 
tion; and  until  1884  these  were  the  only  school  edifices  of  brick 
in  the  city. 

The  main  difficulties  in  providing  new  schoolhouses  were 
those  of  the  determination  and  of  the  expense  of  proper  sites  for 
them.  The  numerous  small  school  lots  inherited  from  the  district 
system  had  been  purchased  in  the  days  when  apparently  any 
land  was  good  enough  for  a  schoolhouse,  if  within  a  convenient 
radius  of  it  there  were  forty  or  fifty  school  children  of  all  ages. 
In  the  meantime,  the  value  of  land  had  been  multiplied  in  the 
thickly  settled  parts  of  the  town  where  existed  the  greatest  need 
of  modern  schoolhouses;  and  the  consolidation  of  schools,  de- 
sirable both  from  an  educational  and  an  economic  standpoint, 
was  hindered  by  the  lack  of  foresight  of  a  previous  generation  of 
voters. 

The  school  committee  in  1880  began  to  urge  the  dedication 
of  the  present  Common  to  school  purposes,  and  this  project  was 
recommended  also  to  the  town  by  a  special  committee  appointed 
in  1881  to  consider  the  matter  of  sites;  but  the  measure  was  not 
approved,  although  the  voters  were  now  appreciative  of  the  ne- 
cessity. The  school  population  was  increasing  at  a  rate  which 
would  fill  three  or  four  additional  rooms  a  year,  and  singular  ex- 
pedients were  employed,  as  when  the  congestion  in  the  Silver 
Lake  school  was  relieved  by  removing  a  number  of  its  pupils  to  a 
room  in  a  block  on  Fenn  Street,  under  the  same  roof  with  such 
academic  inspirations  as  a  billiard  saloon  and  a  roller  skating 
rink. 

The  town  was  no  longer  disposed  to  view  the  situation  with 
complacency.  In  1883,  a  new  schoolhouse  was  authorized  at 
Pontoosuc  and  another  at  the  corner  of  Fenn  and  Second  Streets. 
The  former  was  ready  for  occupancy  in  1884,  and  the  latter  in 
1885.     New  schoolhouses  at  the  Junction  and  on  Linden  Street 


SCHOOLS  137 

were  built  in  1888  and  1889,  and  one  on  Winter  Street  at  Morn- 
ingside  in  1890.  These  buildings  were  adequate  and  creditable; 
and  while  it  cannot  be  said  that,  at  the  time  when  the  town  in 
1891  became  a  city,  the  equipment  of  schoolhouses  was  what 
the  public  deserved  to  have,  it  is  true  that  the  voters  at  town 
meetings  after  1880  had  displayed  a  spirit  distinctly  more 
earnest  than  that  of  their  predecessors  in  supporting  public  edu- 
cation. The  town's  last  annual  appropriation  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  schools  was  $48,000. 

Upon  Mr.  Hull's  retirement  from  the  office  of  chairman  of 
the  town's  school  committee  in  1882,  he  was  succeeded  by  Dr. 
Abner  M.  Smith,  who  served  until  1885.  Dr.  Smith  was  follow- 
ed, for  a  period  of  three  years,  by  Dr.  William  M.  Mercer.  In 
1888,  Col.  Walter  Cutting  was  chairman,  and,  in  1889,  Harlan  H. 
Ballard,  who  served  until  the  expiration  of  the  town  government. 
Thomas  H.  Day  was  superintendent  of  schools,  following  Mr. 
Rice,  from  1886  to  1891.  The  importance  to  the  town  of  the 
duties  undertaken  by  these  men  and  their  associates  on  the 
school  committees  is  indicated  by  the  facts  that,  between  1882 
and  1891,  the  school  enrolment  increased  from  2,783  to  3,422,  the 
number  of  schools  from  forty-three  to  sixty-three,  and  the  num- 
ber of  teachers  from  sixty-two  to  eighty-six.  They  instituted  a 
training  school  for  teachers,  revived  evening  schools,  which  had 
been  abandoned  in  1876,  and  broadened  the  field  of  usefulness 
of  the  common  schools  by  encouraging  instruction  in  mechanical 
and  free-hand  drawing,  vocal  music,  and  natural  science.  Nor 
should  it  be  forgotten,  in  recording  their  efforts  to  establish  a 
right  and  liberal  policy,  that  Pittsfield's  latterly  overgrown  and 
overhurried  town  meetings  did  not  always  allow  a  forum  adapted 
to  the  discussion  of  educational  theory  and  practice.  Neverthe- 
less, on  penalty  of  decreased  appropriations,  it  was  necessary  for 
the  school  committeemen  and  their  allies,  in  open  meeting,  to 
defend  progressive  methods  of  instruction  and  school  organiza- 
tion against  all  comers,  to  satisfy  the  scruples  of  honest  voters 
whose  ideas  of  the  scope  of  public  education  had  been  formed  in 
the  rural  district  schools  of  their  boyhood,  and  even  sometimes 
to  placate  then  and  there  an  oratorical  father  whose  children 
had  a  grievance  against  a  teacher  or  a  textbook. 


1S8  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

The  city's  first  school  committee,  in  1891,  had  for  its  chair- 
man Joseph  Tucker,  who  held  the  oJ9Bce  until  1896.  William 
B.  Rice  was  the  chairman  in  1896,  1897  and  1898.  In  1899, 
Judge  Tucker  resumed  the  chairmanship  of  the  committee,  and 
therein  served  continuously  for  six  years.  He  was  succeeded  in 
1905  by  William  L.  Adam,  who  was  chairman  until  1914.  In 
1914  and  1915,  Joseph  E.  Peirson  was  the  official  head  of  the 
school  committee,  which,  under  the  municipal  charter,  consisted 
of  fourteen  members,  two  being  elected  by  each  ward  of  the  city. 
Beginning  in  1891  and  continuing  through  1915,  William  Nugent 
was  a  member  of  the  committee,  and  its  secretary. 

The  committee  of  1891  soon  lost  by  resignation  the  services 
as  superintendent  of  Mr.  Day,  and  A.  M.  Edwards  was  engaged 
to  replace  him.  Among  the  salaried  superintendents  of  Pittsfield 
schools,  Mr.  Edwards  was  the  first  who  brought  to  the  office  any 
previous  technical  training  in  his  professional  duties,  and  who 
had  not  been  a  member  of  the  committee  which  employed  him. 
He  served  for  three  years.  In  1894,  Dr.  Eugene  Bouton  accepted 
the  position  and  held  it  until  1905,  when  he  was  succeeded  by 
Charles  A.  Byram.  Mr.  Byram's  tenure  of  the  office  ceased  in 
1909;  Clarence  J.  Russell  performed  the  duties  of  "acting  super- 
intendent" from  September  1909,  to  June  1910;  and  upon  the 
latter  date  Clair  G.  Persons,  who  still  holds  the  position,  became 
superintendent. 

Many  new  features  characterized  the  progress  of  the  public 
schools  of  Massachusetts  after  1890.  Some  of  them  were  the 
enrichment  of  courses  of  study  without  loss  of  thoroughness,  a 
greater  respect  for  the  pupil's  individuality,  an  extraordinary  de- 
velopment of  the  high  school  system,  an  increased  demand  for 
trained  skill  and  earnestness  in  supervision  and  in  teachers  of  all 
grades,  and  a  remarkable  advance  in  schoolhouse  construction, 
sanitation,  and  equipment.  Along  these  lines,  the  schools  of 
Pittsfield  moved  forward;  but,  somewhat  as  the  schools  of  the 
town  had  been  often  handicapped  by  the  indifference  of  the 
voters  at  town  meeting,  so  now  the  schools  of  the  city  were  to  be 
burdened  by  the  unavoidable  difficulties  due  to  an  abnormally 
rapid  gain  of  population.  The  number  of  children  of  school  age 
was,  in  1890,  3,276;   in  1915  it  was  7,463. 


SCHOOLS  139 

These  diflaculties  were  clearly  apprehended  by  the  mayor  of 
1894,  John  C.  Crosby,  whose  inaugural  address  advocated  a  new 
high  school  in  a  central  location  and  laid  emphasis  on  the  general 
need  of  new  schoolhouses.  A  new  schoolhouse  had  been  occupied 
at  Stearnsville  in  1893,  but  the  buildings  in  the  center  of  the  city 
had  become  inadequate.  In  March,  1895,  the  burning  of  the 
high  school  building  on  South  Street  complicated  the  problem. 
Judge  Crosby,  who  was  mayor  again  in  1895,  again  pressed  forci- 
bly the  necessity  of  new  schoolhouses;  the  school  committee  ap- 
peared before  the  city  council  and  explained  the  physical  plight 
of  the  schools;  and  in  May  money  was  appropriated  for  three 
new  buildings,  with  an  aggregate  capacity  of  twenty-two  rooms 
and  at  an  aggregate  cost  of  over  $100,000.  The  emergency, 
when  at  last  appreciated,  was  squarely  met. 

With  the  erection  of  these  buildings  was  established  in  Pitts- 
field  the  excellent  custom  of  bestowing  upon  the  more  important 
schoolhouses  the  names  of  distinguished  citizens.  Of  the  school- 
houses  authorized  in  1895,  the  Solomon  L.  Russell  School  was 
built  on  Peck's  Road,  the  Charles  B.  Redfield  School  on  Elizabeth 
Street,  and  the  George  N.  Briggs  School  at  the  corner  of  West 
and  John  Streets.  The  Russell  School  and  the  Redfield  School 
were  opened  in  the  fall  of  1896.  The  Briggs  School,  owing  to 
vexatious  delay  in  construction,  was  not  ready  until  a  year  later. 

Having  authorized  this  liberal  expenditure,  however,  the  city 
council  of  1895  still  faced  the  imperative  need  of  a  new  building 
for  the  high  school,  and  plans  for  it  were  at  once  initiated  on 
a  similar  generous  scale  of  appropriation.  The  original  cost  to 
the  city  of  the  high  school  building  between  Second  Street  and  the 
Common,  opened  in  the  spring  of  1898,  was  $170,000.  The  cost 
to  the  town  of  its  immediate  predecessor  on  South  Street  had 
been  $16,000  in  1876. 

Thus  in  1895  the  city  was  compelled  to  shoulder  in  one  year 
financial  burdens,  for  educational  purposes,  of  which  a  large 
share  might  have  been  distributed  over  several  previous  years; 
and  the  troublesome  experience  was  not  repeated,  although  the 
necessity  for  new  schoolhouses  and  for  the  enlargement  of  exist- 
ing buildings  soon  began  again  to  be  pressing.  In  1905,  a 
spacious  and  handsome  new  building,  to  be  known  as  the  William 


140  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

M.  Mercer  School,  was  dedicated  at  the  corner  of  First  and 
Orchard  Streets.  In  1908,  the  Henry  L.  Dawes  School  on  Elm 
Street  was  opened;  and  the  William  R.  Plunkett  School  in  1909 
was  built  at  the  corner  of  First  and  Fenn  Streets,  of  which  the 
cost  was  $80,000.  In  1910,  the  William  Nugent  School  was 
opened  at  the  Junction,  having  been  erected  to  replace  there  the 
schoolhouse  destroyed  by  fire  in  April,  1909.  On  Onota  Street, 
the  William  Francis  Bartlett  School  was  ready  for  occupancy  in 
1912.  The  Crane  School  in  1913  was  opened  at  Morningside,  on 
Dartmouth  Street;  and  the  Pomeroy  School,  on  West  Housa- 
tonic  Street,  was  completed  in  1915. 

The  Winter  Street  building,  erected  in  1890,  was  by  the  school 
committee  in  1899  officially  named  the  William  B.  Rice  School; 
in  1907  the  name  of  the  Joseph  Tucker  School  was  given  to  the 
schoolhouse  on  Linden  Street,  of  which  the  capacity  had  been 
greatly  increased  since  its  construction  in  1889;  and  also  in  1907 
the  building  which  had  been  erected  in  1885  at  Fenn  and  Second 
Streets  received  the  title  of  the  Franklin  F.  Read  School. 

The  town  meeting  voters  in  1876  could  not  regard  the  Pitts- 
field  high  school  with  complete  friendliness.  There  the  annual 
cost  of  instruction  alone  was  then  more  than  $40  for  each  pupil, 
and  the  educational  function  of  the  school  was  not  very  clearly 
appreciated.  Probably  most  of  those  who  finished  its  course 
did  so  with  the  intention  of  becoming  teachers.  In  1875,  and 
again  in  1878,  the  small  graduating  class  was  composed  entirely  of 
girls.  A  few  boys  were  able  there  to  prepare  themselves  for  col- 
lege, but  the  vast  majority  of  Pittsfield's  public  school  pupils 
never  saw,  and  never  purposed  to  see,  the  inside  of  a  high  school. 
To  many  voters  this  school  seemed,  therefore,  like  a  useless  and 
expensive  superfluity,  and,  had  not  its  continuance  been  pre- 
scribed by  statute,  a  motion  to  abolish  it  between  1870  and  1880 
must  have  found  support. 

In  1880  the  regular  course  was  one  of  four  years,  and  during 
the  school  year  ending  in  1884  the  average  daily  attendance  ex- 
ceeded one  hundred  for  the  first  time.  An  increase  of  attendance 
after  this  was  constantly  maintained.  The  institution  began  to 
be  recognized  as  an  essential  and  important  part  of  the  public 
school    system.     Gradually    the    curriculum    was    made    more 


SCHOOLS  141 

elastic.  In  1888,  the  pupil  had  a  choice  of  four  courses  of  study. 
These  were  a  classical  course,  preparatory  for  college;  a  scientific 
course,  differing  from  the  classical  mainly  in  the  substitution  of 
the  sciences  for  Greek;  an  English  course,  differing  from  the 
scientific  in  allowing  the  pupil  a  choice  between  Latin,  French, 
or  German  in  the  first  and  second  years,  and  in  the  substitution 
of  English  for  a  foreign  language  in  the  third  and  fourth  years; 
and  lastly  a  business  course,  designed  for  those  who  could  not 
remain  in  the  school  to  complete  one  of  the  four-year  courses. 
The  average  daily  attendance  first  touched  two  hundred  in  1894. 

In  the  following  year,  however,  the  educational  and  numerical 
development  of  the  school  was  rudely  checked  by  the  destruction 
by  fire  of  the  South  Street  building.  The  disaster  was  so  com- 
plete that  the  only  salvage  of  school  equipment  was  a  piano,  a 
chair,  and  a  teacher's  desk.  Under  these  circumstances,  com- 
mendable energy  was  displayed  by  the  committee  and  by  the 
faculty  of  the  school.  A  floor  was  hired  and  furnished  in  the 
block,  then  unfinished,  on  the  west  corner  of  Clapp  Avenue  and 
West  Street;  and  there  the  school  resumed  its  sessions  in  less 
than  a  month  after  the  fire.  These  makeshift  quarters  were  oc- 
cupied for  two  school  years,  and  in  the  fall  of  1897  the  larger 
part  of  the  high  school  was  housed  in  the  building  on  School 
Street,  thus  returning  temporarily  to  its  old  home  after  an  inter- 
val of  a  quarter-century. 

During  this  migratory  period,  the  work  of  the  institution  was, 
of  course,  conducted  with  great  difficulty.  Laboratory  instruc- 
tion was  almost  impossible.  That  the  school  was  able  to  pre- 
serve a  considerable  measure  of  usefulness  and  a  commendable 
measure  of  morale  is  to  the  credit  both  of  the  teachers  and  the 
scholars. 

Their  trials  were  aggravated  by  many  unforeseen  delays  in 
the  erection  of  the  new  building  on  Second  Street.  Retarded 
by  the  necessity  of  righting  defective  workmanship,  the  progress 
of  construction  was  slow,  and  the  building  was  not  available  for 
occupancy  until  1898.  It  was  a  spacious  and  conveniently  ar- 
ranged edifice  of  light  brick,  trimmed  with  marble  and  terra  cotta, 
and  in  dimensions  135  feet  by  137.  Its  three  floors  might  ac- 
commodate 600  pupils,  with  the  recitation  rooms,  laboratories. 


142  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

and  accessories  demanded  by  modern  requirements  for  high 
school  work.  An  auditorium  on  the  second  floor  seated  700 
people.  The  first  graduation  exercises  therein  were  conducted 
on  June  twenty-third,  1898,  when  forty-four  students  received 
diplomas.  In  previous  years,  the  exercises  had  been  held  usually 
at  the  Academy  of  Music. 

At  first,  the  new  building  was  able  to  accommodate  schools 
of  a  lower  grade  as  well  as  those  of  the  high  school,  but  so  ex- 
traordinarily rapid  was  the  latter's  growth  that  it  soon  monopol- 
ized and  overflowed  its  quarters.  In  1899  the  enrolment  of  the 
high  school  was  247;  in  1909  it  was  455;  in  the  fall  term  of  1911 
it  was  705.  In  1912,  the  commercial  section  was  transferred  to 
the  Read  School  on  Fenn  Street.  In  the  winter  term  of  1914, 
the  enrolment  of  the  high  school  was  945,  its  actual  membership 
was  891,  its  faculty  numbered  thirty-six,  and  the  relief  afforded 
by  utilizing  the  Read  building  had,  in  the  words  of  the  principal's 
report,  "ceased  to  exist".  This  remarkable  expansion  of  the 
high  school  in  recent  years  was  accompanied,  if  not  accelerated, 
by  several  noteworthy  changes  of  method  and  organization. 
The  so-called  business  course  was  greatly  strengthened,  depart- 
mental subdivisions  were  more  effectively  arranged,  a  scheme  of 
semi-annual  promotions  was  introduced,  and  a  rational  effort 
was  made  to  develop  that  elusive  quality  known  as  school  spirit 
in  both  students  and  instructors. 

In  1876  the  principal  was  Albert  Tolman,  who  was  succeeded 
by  Earl  G.  Baldwin  in  1878,  by  Edward  H.  Rice  in  1881,  by 
John  B.  Welch  in  1887,  by  Charles  A.  Byram  in  1891,  and  by 
William  D.  Goodwin  in  1904.  Harry  E.  Pratt,  the  present 
principal,  followed  Mr.  Goodwin  in  1911. 

Later  advances  achieved  by  the  city's  general  system  of  pub- 
lic schools  were  most  conspicuous,  perhaps,  in  1911,  a  year  which 
marked  the  introduction  of  a  more  flexible  gradation  and  of  the 
physical  examination  of  school  children.  At  the  same  time,  in- 
struction in  the  manual  arts  was  somewhat  forwarded;  but  this 
department  of  public  education  was  peculiarly  discouraged  by 
lack  of  adequate  means  and  facilities,  although  a  one-year's 
course  of  manual  training  for  boys  was  established  in  1909,  and 
for  girls  a  course  of  domestic  science  in  1913. 


SCHOOLS  143 

The  work  of  the  evening  schools,  accentuated  in  value  by  the 
increasing  number  of  foreign-born  laborers  desirous  of  learning 
to  read  and  write  English,  was  continued  so  successfully  that  in 
1913  the  maximum  attendance  therein  was  660. 

A  training  school  for  teachers,  which  was  initiated  apparently 
in  1880,  was  in  1905  discontinued.  More  than  one-half  of  the 
teaching  force  of  the  public  schools  of  Pittsfield  had  been  gradu- 
ated from  it,  under  the  instruction,  after  1888,  of  Miss  Arabella 
Roach,  at  the  Orchard  Street  building,  and  it  had  served  well  the 
purpose  for  which  it  was  intended.  The  school  committee  of 
1905,  however,  was  of  the  opinion  that  the  convenient  eJQBciencies 
of  the  State  Normal  Schools  made  its  continuance  of  questionable 
value. 

With  far  less  unanimity  of  opinion  did  committee  after  com- 
mittee regard  the  question  of  kindergarten  instruction.  It  was 
seriously  suggested  first  by  the  committee  of  1893;  an  oflBcial  ap- 
propriation was  not  made  until  1902  for  a  kindergarten;  and 
then  the  Pittsfield  Kindergarten  Association,  which  had  main- 
tained a  school  at  Russell's,  turned  over  to  the  city  its  equip- 
ment. The  work  of  this  organization  and,  indeed,  its  assump- 
tion and  enlargement  by  the  city  are  to  be  ascribed  chiefly  to  the 
enthusiasm  in  the  cause  of  public  kindergartens  of  Mrs.  William 
L.  Adam,  who  continued  to  devote  herself  to  their  interests  for 
several  years  after  they  had  become  a  part  of  the  municipal 
system  of  schools. 

The  number  of  teachers  which  the  system  employed  in  1891, 
the  first  year  of  the  city  form  of  government,  was  eighty-six. 
In  1915  the  number  of  teachers  was  203.  The  appropriations 
voted  by  the  first  city  council  for  the  maintenance  of  schools  in 
1891  amounted  to  $54,000.  The  city's  appropriation  for  school 
purposes  in  1915  was  $252,000. 

An  important  share  of  the  duty  of  providing  free  education 
for  the  youth  of  Pittsfield  was  assumed  in  1897  by  the  Sisters  of 
St.  Joseph,  who  opened  a  free  academy  at  the  convent  on  North 
Street  in  September  of  that  year.  Two  years  later,  in  1899,  the 
building  of  the  St.  Joseph's  Parochial  School  was  erected  on  First 
Street,  containing  ten  classrooms,  and  an  assembly  hall.  Begin- 
ning its  sessions  there  in  September,  1899,  the  school  had  an 


144  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

enrolment  during  its  first  year  of  approximately  470  pupils,  and 
its  work  has  been  of  increasing  value  and  usefulness  to  the  com- 
munity. The  enrolment  for  the  school  year  1914-1915  included 
688  pupils,  arranged  in  nine  grades  and  a  high  school,  where  the 
course  was  one  of  four  years'  instruction.  In  effect,  the  courses 
of  study  have  conformed  to  those  afforded  by  the  public  schools 
maintained  by  the  city.  The  principals  and  teachers  have  been 
the  Sisters  of  St.  Joseph;  and  the  successive  principals  have  been 
Sister  M.  Irene  (1899),  Sister  Clara  Agnes  (1900),  Sister  St. 
Thomas  (1905),  Sister  M.  Irene  (1911),  and  Sister  M.  Raphael 
(1914). 

In  1876  the  famous  private  school  for  girls  at  Maplewood, 
having  been  known  for  twenty  years  as  Maplewood  Institute, 
was  slowly  expiring,  although  the  courageous  and  somewhat 
pathetic  struggle  to  keep  it  alive  was  not  abandoned  until  1884, 
when  a  school  met  for  the  last  time  within  the  walls  which  had 
sheltered  an  academical  institution  since  1827.  Rev.  Charles 
V.  Spear  had  become  its  sole  owner  in  1864  by  purchasing  the 
land  and  buildings  for  $27,000.  The  scholars,  many  of  whom 
came  from  distant  parts  of  the  country,  then  numbered  200, 
and  both  in  popularity  and  educational  value  the  Institute  was 
the  equal  of  any  girls'  school  in  New  England.  Immediately, 
however,  the  shadow  of  evil  fortune  began  to  enshroud  it.  Two 
invasions  of  its  buildings  by  epidemic  disease,  in  1864  and  1866, 
weakened  public  confidence.  Having  partly  regained  its  pres- 
tige, the  school  with  150  pupils  in  1873  was  so  staggered  by  the 
financial  panic  of  that  year  that  thereafter  its  decadence  was 
never  again  checked,  and  competition  with  its  rivals  at  Pough- 
keepsie  and  Northampton  was  out  of  the  question.  In  1883, 
Mr.  Spear,  who  seems  gallantly  to  have  expended  his  mental 
and  physical  energy  in  the  losing  fight,  leased  the  institution  to 
Louis  C.  Stanton,  a  member  of  his  teaching  staff.  Mr.  Stanton's 
endeavor  was  soon  concluded.  The  property  then  was  presented 
by  Mr.  Spear  to  Oberlin  College  in  Ohio,  with  the  hope,  perhaps, 
that  the  college  might  be  able  to  revive  the  fame  and  prosperity 
of  the  Institute.  This  the  collegiate  authorities  were  unwilling 
to  attempt.  In  1887  they  leased  the  establishment  to  Arthur 
W.  Plumb,  who  transformed  it  into  a  summer  hotel.     For  a 


SCHOOLS  145 

similar  purpose  it  had  been  utilized  by  evanescent  tenants  for 
several  previous  seasons.  Mr.  Plumb  purchased  the  land  and 
buildings  in  1889. 

The  Maplewood  Association,  composed  of  alumnae  of  the 
Institute  and  organized  in  New  York  City  in  1900,  cherishes 
warmly  the  memories  and  spirit  of  the  school.  It  held  its  first 
annual  reunion  at  the  present  Maplewood  on  June  seventh,  1900. 
Rev,  Charles  V.  Spear  died,  May  tenth,  1891,  at  Constanti- 
nople. He  was  born  in  the  town  of  Randolph,  now  Holbrook, 
Massachusetts,  November  thirteenth,  1825,  and  was  graduated 
in  1846  from  Amherst  College.  Soon  after  graduation  he  came 
to  Pittsfield  to  teach  at  the  Institute,  then  conducted  by  Rev. 
Wellington  Hart  Tyler,  and  to  study  theology  under  Rev.  John 
Todd.  He  was  licensed  to  preach  in  1851,  and  for  three  years 
was  in  charge  of  a  church  at  Sudbury,  Massachusetts,  but  he 
resumed  his  connection  with  the  school  at  Maplewood  at  about 
the  time  when  Rev.  J.  Holmes  Agnew  became  its  proprietor,  in 
1854.  Mr.  Spear  was  for  thirty  years  a  helpful  citizen  of  Pitts- 
field,  and  served  the  community  as  president  of  the  Library  As- 
sociation and  as  a  trustee  of  its  successor,  the  Berkshire  Athe- 
naeum. He  was  a  cultured  man,  of  high  and  pure  ideals.  In 
his  later  years,  he  fell  heir  to  a  large  estate  and  was  a  generous 
benefactor  of  Oberlin  College,  to  which  he  gave  a  library  and  a 
supporting  endowment;  of  the  latter,  the  Maplewood  property 
was  a  part. 

The  Institute  was  reanimated  in  1867  by  the  advent  of  Ben- 
jamin C.  Blodgett  as  head  of  the  department  of  music;  indeed, 
that  department  was  judged  to  be  the  chief  attraction  of  the 
school.  Mr.  Blodgett,  however,  seceded  in  1878,  and  established 
a  music  school  of  his  own  on  Wendell  Avenue,  in  the  house  built 
by  Gen.  William  Francis  Bartlett.  By  his  work  there,  as  well  as 
at  Maplewood,  Mr.  Blodgett,  stimulated  in  the  town  of  his  time 
a  fondness  for  good  music,  of  which  the  influence  may  be  said 
still  to  linger.  In  1881,  he  left  Pittsfield  to  accept  the  duties  of 
professor  of  music  at  Smith  College.  For  some  years,  however, 
after  he  had  ceased  to  be  a  resident  of  Pittsfield  he  was  able  to 
give  to  the  pupils  of  Miss  Salisbury's  school  on  South  Street  the 
benefit  of  his  talent  for  musical  instruction  and  criticism. 


146  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Miss  Mary  E.  Salisbury,  of  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  ac- 
quired in  1871  the  ownership  of  the  private  school  for  girls  which 
had  been  conducted  in  Pittsfield  since  1845  by  Miss  Clara  Wells. 
When  its  management  was  assumed  by  Miss  Salisbury,  who  had 
been  Miss  Wells's  assistant,  the  school  was  housed  in  the  brick 
building  at  the  north  corner  of  Reed  and  South  Streets,  which 
had  sheltered  a  boys'  boarding  school  from  1826  to  1852.  Under 
Miss  Salisbury's  eflBcient,  gracious,  and  affectionate  direction,  her 
school  for  girls  prospered  notably.  In  1875  the  building  was  en- 
larged, but  it  was  not  long  before  admission  was  sought  annually 
by  more  scholars  than  could  be  accommodated.  Nevertheless, 
Miss  Salisbury,  a  firm  believer  in  the  personal  element  in  educa- 
tion, quietly  declined  to  allow  the  school  to  outgrow  the  sphere 
of  her  intimate  supervision.  A  department  of  day  scholars, 
which  included  young  boys,  was  liberally  patronized,  and  thus 
Miss  Salisbury  came  to  be  endeared  to  many  Pittsfield  house- 
holds. In  1898,  honored  and  beloved,  she  resigned  her  work,  in 
which  she  had  labored  with  rare  singleness  of  purpose  for  more 
than  twenty-five  years. 

Miss  Salisbury's  successor  in  the  South  Street  building  was 
Miss  Mira  H.  Hall,  who  there  opened  her  day  and  boarding 
school  for  girls  in  September,  1898.  In  1889,  an  additional 
house  was  rented  on  Reed  Street;  in  1900,  the  school  was  moved 
to  Elmwood,  the  former  home  of  Edward  Learned.  Miss  Hall, 
nine  years  afterward,  purchased  from  the  heirs  of  Col.  Walter 
Cutting  the  house  and  residential  property  once  occupied  by 
Col.  Cutting  on  Holmes  Road,  and  there  reopened  her  school  in 
the  fall  of  1909.  The  pupils  of  her  successful  boarding  school 
numbered  seventy -five  in  1915. 

Of  private  schools  for  boys,  Pittsfield  was  not  fertile  during 
the  period  surveyed  by  this  volume.  At  Wendell  Hall,  Earl  G. 
Baldwin  for  two  years  conducted  a  boys'  school  which  was  open- 
ed in  1881.  In  1883,  Rev.  Joseph  M.  Turner  established  the 
St.  Stephen's  School  for  boys  on  Pomeroy  Avenue,  which  after 
his  death  in  1887  was  continued  for  a  short  time  by  Edward  T. 
Fisher.  From  1888  to  1893,  Joseph  E.  Peirson  was  the  proprie- 
tor and  principal  of  a  boys'  school  on  West  Housatonic  Street. 
Arthur    J.    Clough,    in    1895,    opened    the    Berkshire    School 


SCHOOLS  147 

for  boys.  This  was  maintained  until  1903.  At  first  it  occupied 
the  former  Theodore  Pomeroy  homestead  on  West  Housatonic 
Street;  in  1901,  Mr.  Clough  moved  his  school  to  the  building  on 
South  Street,  recently  occupied  by  the  schools  of  Miss  Hall  and 
Miss  Salisbury. 


CHAPTER  X 
CHURCHES— I. 

IN  1876  the  community  of  Pittsfield  and  in  particular  its  oldest 
religious  society  were  still  conscious  of  a  peculiar  sense  of 
deprivation  because  of  the  loss  by  death  in  1873  of  an  intel- 
lectual and  religious  leader  so  powerful  as  was  Dr.  John  Todd. 
His  ministry  at  the  First  Congregational  Church  had  been  one 
of  thirty-one  years.  His  fame  through  his  writings  was  world- 
wide. Affectionately  attached  to  Pittsfield,  he  had  made  his 
broad  humanity  a  large  part  of  the  spiritual  and  social  life  of  the 
town.  It  was  not  in  his  own  pulpit,  but  at  the  South  Congrega- 
tional Church,  on  June  fifteenth,  1873,  that  Dr.  Todd  preached 
his  last  sermon.  His  immediate  successors,  in  the  parish  which 
had  known  him  so  long  and  so  proudly,  were  confronted  by  no 
ordinary  task. 

Rev.  Edward  O.  Bartlett,  who  had  acted  as  Dr.  Todd's  suc- 
cessor after  the  veteran  parson's  retirement,  was  installed  pastor 
of  the  First  Church  in  1873.  It  is  probable  that  the  church  was 
not  quite  ready  to  commit  definitely  Dr.  Todd's  pulpit  to  an- 
other. Mr.  Bartlett  resigned  his  pastorate  in  1876.  After  an 
interval  of  more  than  a  year,  the  church  and  parish  were  at 
length  able  to  make  a  final  decision,  and  on  July  fifth,  1877,  Rev. 
Jonathan  L.  Jenkins  was  installed  in  the  pastorate.  The  choice 
was  auspicious  for  both  parish  and  town.  Under  the  guidance 
of  Dr.  Jenkins,  the  affairs  of  the  church  flowed  smoothly  in 
their  accustomed  channels  for  fifteen  years.  He  resigned  his 
direction  of  them  in  1892,  and  accepted  a  call  which  he  received 
from  the  State  Street  Congregational  Church  in  Portland, 
Maine,  his  native  city. 

Dr.  Jonathan  L.  Jenkins  was  born  in  Portland,  November 
twenty-third,  1830,  and  was  graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1851. 
He  studied  theology  at  Yale  and  at  Andover;  and  before  coming 


CHURCHES— I  149 

to  Pittsfield  he  had  served  in  successive  pastorates  at  Lowell, 
Hartford,  and  Amherst,  having  presided  over  the  Congregational 
church  in  Amherst  for  ten  years.  He  thus  assumed  his  ministry 
at  Pittsfield  in  the  full  maturity  of  intellectual  powers  that  had 
been  sharpened  by  exercise  in  the  cultivated  and  critical  society 
of  a  New  England  college  town.  A  man  of  distinguished  aspect 
and  uncommon  personal  charm,  a  preacher  who  imparted  spirit- 
uality with  pungent  eloquence,  a  progressive  and  open-minded 
scholar,  Dr.  Jenkins  was  well-equipped  to  maintain  the  tradi- 
tional dignity  and  influence  of  Pittsfield's  oldest  pulpit. 

Dr.  Jenkins  identified  himself  as  well  with  secular  agencies 
for  good.  The  cause  of  popular  education  found  him  a  convinc- 
ing advocate.  The  beginnings  of  the  Union  for  Home  Work  were 
inspired  largely  by  him.  His  graceful  presence  and  graceful 
speech  were  favorite  features  of  public  ceremonies  and  celebra- 
tions; on  occasions  less  formal  and  more  intimate,  his  talk  was 
witty,  amiable,  and  suggestive;  and  he  had  a  genius  for  the  con- 
cise and  sympathetic  phrase,  whether  spoken  or  written.  His 
citizenship  was  a  stimulation  to  many  of  the  higher  and  uplifting 
interests  of  the  town. 

After  leaving  Pittsfield  in  1892,  Dr.  Jenkins  remained  as 
minister  of  the  State  Street  Church  in  Portland  for  nearly  ten 
years.  He  then  resigned  active  pastoral  work.  The  home 
of  his  old  age  was  in  or  near  Boston,  whence  he  came  not  infre- 
quently to  Pittsfield,  and  gratified  by  so  doing  a  wide  circle  of 
devoted  friends.  While  making  one  of  these  visits,  he  fell  ill; 
and  he  died  in  Pittsfield,  August  fifteenth,  1913,  in  the  eighty- 
second  year  of  his  age. 

The  observance  of  the  125th  anniversary  of  the  First  Church 
occurred  during  the  ministry  of  Dr.  Jenkins,  The  commemo- 
rative exercises  were  held  on  February  seventh,  1889.  The 
pastor  delivered  an  impressive  anniversary  address,  which  the 
committee's  report  of  the  proceedings  rightfully  characterizes 
as  the  "work  of  a  man  who  dearly  loved  his  theme  and  spared  no 
pains  to  do  it  justice".  Members  of  church  and  parish  read 
papers  of  historical  interest,  and  reminiscent  and  congratulatory 
remarks  were  made  by  invited  guests.  In  the  chapel  was  ex- 
hibited a  large  collection  of  portraits  of  men  and  women  who 


150  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

had  been  members  of  the  church  in  the  past,  or  who  had  worship- 
ed with  it  in  its  various  meeting-houses.  The  purpose  of  the 
celebration  was  declared  by  its  organizers  to  be  threefold — to  do 
honor  to  the  memory  of  the  fathers,  to  bring  into  closer  relation- 
ship those  who  had  succeeded  or  were  descended  from  them,  and 
to  obtain  and  preserve  memorials  of  the  church's  history,  whether 
of  record  or  derived  from  tradition.  So  far  as  the  object  last 
named  is  concerned,  this  purpose  was  visibly  fulfilled,  for  the 
little  volume  published  by  the  anniversary  committee  must  al- 
ways be  invaluable  to  the  local  antiquarian. 

The  resignation  of  Dr.  Jenkins,  which  was  accepted  by  the 
church,  but  not  at  once  by  the  parish,  was  finally  approved  by  an 
ecclesiastical  council  held  on  July  twenty-fifth,  1892,  pursuant 
to  letters  missive  sent  out  by  the  First  Church.  The  pastorate 
was  then  vacant  for  more  than  a  year.  On  September  fourth, 
1893,  the  joint  committee  of  church  and  parish  received  the  ac- 
ceptance to  a  call  sent  to  Rev.  William  Vail  Wilson  Davis.  His 
period  of  service  in  Pittsfield  continued  for  seventeen  years. 

Dr.  Davis  was  a  native  of  the  town  of  Wilson,  New  York, 
where  he  was  born  February  seventeenth,  1851.  He  was  in  1873 
graduated  from  Amherst  College,  and  in  1877  from  the  Andover 
Theological  Seminary.  Before  coming  to  Pittsfield,  he  had 
been  installed  pastor  over  Congregational  churches  in  Manches- 
ter, New  Hampshire,  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  and  in  Worcester, 
Massachusetts.  Lacking  that  sort  of  personal  magnetism  which 
is  quickly  and  generally  operative,  he  nevertheless  possessed  the 
power  of  attracting  and  leading  young  people;  and  an  early  effect 
of  his  work  in  Pittsfield  was  the  invigoration  of  the  church  by 
the  youthful  enthusiasm  of  new  members.  Intellectually,  he 
had  not  many  peers  among  the  clergymen  of  the  Commonwealth. 
"Many  of  his  sermons",  said  a  speaker  at  the  commemoration  of 
the  150th  anniversary  of  the  church  in  1914,  "were  built  about  a 
skeleton  of  philosophy,  and  full  of  philosophic  phrases  and  ideas 
difficult  for  a  lay  mind  to  grasp,  but  no  sermon  ever  here  fell 
from  his  lips,  which,  understood,  failed  to  uplift,  encourage,  lead 
on  to  God,  and  the  coming  of  His  kingdom  here  on  earth". 
His  fellow  workers  in  Berkshire,  and  especially  the  poorly  paid 
ministers  of  lonely  country  villages,  found  that  his  charity  was 
not  merely  the  impractical  help  of  a  man  of  books. 


CHURCHES— I  151 

He  soon  conceived  a  strong  and  beneficent  affection  for 
Pittsfield.  Few  men  ever  delighted  so  zestfully  in  the  charm  of 
Berkshire's  hills  and  valleys.  His  end  was  tragic.  In  the 
beautiful  gorge  of  Bash-Bish,  near  Great  Barrington,  he  fell  on 
the  rocky  slope,  and  was  instantly  killed.  The  date  of  his  death 
was  August  twenty-fifth,  1910. 

Rev.  Dwight  F.  Mowrey  was  ordained  assistant  pastor  in 
the  following  November;  Dr.  Davis's  place,  however,  remained 
formally  unfilled  until  June  twenty-seventh,  1912,  when  Rev. 
James  E.  Gregg,  the  present  pastor,  was  installed.  Mr.  Gregg 
had  come  to  Pittsfield  in  1903,  to  preside  over  the  Pilgrim  Me- 
morial Church  on  Wahconah  Street. 

The  appearance  of  the  interior  of  the  edifice  of  the  First 
Congregational  Church  was  radically  altered  in  1882,  when  the 
walls  were  covered  with  a  metallic  leaf,  much  of  the  woodwork 
darkened,  and  a  large  memorial  window,  designed  by  Louis  C. 
Tiffany  and  given  in  memory  of  Jonathan  Allen  and  Eunice 
Williams,  his  wife,  was  set  over  the  south  gallery.  In  1912 
interior  changes  were  again  made,  which  involved  the  substitu- 
tion of  a  new  organ  for  the  old,  and  the  provision  of  a  memorial 
pulpit  in  remembrance  of  John  Todd.  The  lecture  room  to  the 
north  of  the  church,  having  been  substantially  enlarged  so  as  to 
satisfy  the  requirements  of  a  modern  parish  house,  was  rededi- 
cated  in  1894.  The  authorities  of  the  parish,  in  1911,  parted 
with  their  real  estate  holdings  on  South  Street,  including  the 
historic  parsonage  made  famous  as  the  residence  of  Dr.  Todd. 

The  church  in  1914  fittingly  celebrated  its  150th  anniversary. 
The  occasion,  like  the  anniversary  in  1889,  was  preservative  of 
past  tradition,  but  was  in  character  no  less  a  stimulus  to  future 
growth  of  usefulness.  It  is  to  be  noted  of  the  church  that,  while 
clinging  faithfully  to  many  ancient  customs,  it  has  been  so  pro- 
gressive, for  example,  as  to  be  one  of  the  earliest  Protestant 
churches  in  New  England  to  support,  on  its  own  individual  ac- 
count, a  home  missionary  in  a  western  state.  This  was  under- 
taken in  1907.  A  foreign  missionary  in  Japan  had  for  several 
years  been  sustained  by  the  church.  The  Free  Will  Society  of 
women,  formed  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  home  missionaries,  has 
been  in  continuous  and  active  service  among  the  members  of  the 


152  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

First  Church  since  1820;  the  unique  custom  of  inviting  the  peo- 
ple of  Pittsfield  to  unite  in  holding  a  sunrise  prayer  meeting  on 
New  Year's  day  has  been  regularly  observed  by  the  church 
since  1816. 

The  dawn  of  the  year  1876  witnessed  the  beginning  of  the 
seventh  pastorate  at  the  South  Congregational  Church.  This 
was  the  ministry  there  of  Rev.  William  Carruthers.  It  closed 
in  1877;  and  until  1885  the  church  had  no  settled  pastor.  The 
period  for  the  church  was  one  shadowed  by  adversity,  testing  the 
loyalty  and  courage  of  its  leading  members,  but  at  the  same  time 
instilling  that  co-operative  energy  which  later  achieved  gratify- 
ing results.  The  period  was  brightened,  too,  by  the  spirit  of 
each  of  the  two  ministers  who,  although  not  formally  installed 
pastors  of  the  church,  supplied  its  pulpit. 

From  November,  1877,  to  April,  1879,  this  duty  was  per- 
formed by  Rev.  Charles  B.  Boynton.  He  had  been,  twenty 
years  previously,  the  second  pastor  of  the  church.  His  return, 
although  only  for  a  few  months,  was  particularly  welcome  and 
fortunate.  Associated  with  the  youthful  days  of  the  church,  he 
was  peculiarly  fitted  to  revive  its  strength.  Dr.  Boynton  suc- 
cessfully endeavored  to  remove  indebtedness  which  had  been  in- 
curred in  1873,  when  extensive  alterations  were  made  in  the 
audience  room.  This  he  accomplished  in  1878,  albeit  in  the 
stress  of  hard  times;  and  the  accomplishment  under  these  cir- 
cumstances re-established  the  confidence  of  his  people.  Rev. 
C.  H.  Hamlin,  a  clergyman  of  marked  power  and  attraction, 
supplied  the  pulpit  from  1879  to  1885.  The  period  is  remember- 
ed as  one  wherein  the  churches  of  Pittsfield  possessed  preachers 
of  exceptionally  fine  quality.  Among  them  Mr.  Hamlin  was 
conspicuous.  The  South  Church  was  now  turning  the  corner 
from  its  shadowy  lane  of  discouragement,  and  was  ready  for  the 
inspiration  of  a  settled  leadership. 

In  January,  1885,  Rev.  I.  Chipman  Smart  was  installed 
eighth  pastor  of  the  church.  He  was  by  no  means  a  stranger  to 
Pittsfield,  having  served,  before  studying  for  the  ministry,  as 
editor  of  the  Evening  Journal.  His  memorable  pastorate,  which 
covered  a  score  of  years,  is  the  longest  recorded  in  the  history  of 
the  church.     The  renewal  of  vigor  and  activity  was  maintained 


CHURCHES— I  153 

with  constancy  under  his  forward-looking  and  zealous  direction, 
and  the  celebration  of  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  church,  in 
1900,  found  it  progressing  happily  in  strength  and  influence, 
Mr.  Smart's  rare  talent  for  the  incisive,  racy  expression  of  his 
thoughts,  whether  by  tongue  or  pen,  often  affected  the  intellec- 
tual life  of  the  community,  like  a  tonic.  He  withdrew  from  the 
South  Congregational  Church  in  1905,  and  was  followed  in  its 
pulpit  by  Rev.  C.  Austin  Wagner,  who  resigned  it  in  1908,  to  be 
succeeded  in  1909  by  Rev.  Payson  E.  Pierce,  the  present  pastor. 

The  tall  white  steeple  of  the  South  Church  used  to  be  the 
most  conspicuous  landmark  in  the  central  village.  On  January 
twenty-sixth,  1882,  it  was  blown  down  by  a  westerly  gale,  as  its 
predecessor  had  been  in  1859.  The  steeple  was  not  again  re- 
stored, but  the  present  belfry  replaced  it.  In  1884  improve- 
ments were  made  in  the  lecture  room,  and  a  parsonage  was  pur- 
chased. The  audience  room  was  completely  remodeled  and  re- 
decorated in  1892;  the  alterations  involved  the  removal  of  the 
quaint  pew  doors,  and  the  disappearance  of  the  last  of  such  doors 
in  Pittsfield. 

Over  the  Second  Congregational  Church,  Rev.  Samuel  Har- 
rison presided  faithfully  from  the  time  of  his  return  to  Pittsfield 
in  1872,  until  the  date  of  his  death,  August  eleventh,  1900.  He 
was  born  of  slave  parentage  in  1818,  and  was  in  1850  ordained 
minister  of  the  Second  Congregational  Church.  His  first  pas- 
torate there  was  one  of  twelve  years.  During  the  Civil  War,  he 
served  as  a  chaplain  in  the  Fifty-fourth  Massachusetts  regiment, 
led  by  the  heroic  Col.  Robert  B.  Shaw.  Mr.  Harrison,  a  simple. 
God-fearing  man,  so  bore  himself  as  to  command  the  hearty  re- 
spect of  the  town;  he  was  "gifted  in  prayer,"  and  his  sonorous 
voice  was  well-known  at  public  and  religious  meetings.  Like 
his  long  life,  his  pastoral  labor  in  Pittsfield  was  a  patient,  humble 
struggle  against  adversity,  but  his  character  won  for  him  helpful 
friends.  A  memorial  tablet  in  his  honor  was  presented  by  some 
of  them  to  the  Second  Congregational  Church  after  his  death. 
His  successor  and  the  present  minister.  Dr.  T.  Nelson  Baker, 
preached  his  first  Pittsfield  sermon  in  August,  1901.  The 
sixtieth  anniversary  of  the  organization  of  the  church  was  suit- 
ably observed  in  1906. 


154  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

An  informal  outgrowth  of  the  First  Church  was  the  Peck  and 
Russell  Sunday  School,  opened  in  1863  in  a  schoolhouse  on  Peck's 
Road.  Its  superintendents,  between  1863  and  1895,  were  Jabez 
L.  Peck,  Zeno  Russell  and  I.  F.  Chesley;  it  was  maintained  with 
enthusiasm;  and  from  it  came  a  movement  toward  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Congregational  church  in  the  northwestern  section  of 
the  city.  A  preliminary  meeting  having  been  held  on  March 
eighth,  1897,  in  the  Sunday  School  rooms,  the  declaration  of  faith 
of  the  new  Pilgrim  Memorial  Church  received  seventy-nine  sig- 
natures on  the  fourteenth  of  the  same  month,  and  Rev.  Raymond 
Calkins  was  called  to  the  pastorate. 

The  founding  of  the  church  was  with  spirited  generosity  as- 
sisted, both  financially  and  by  personal  counsel,  by  the  manu- 
facturers whose  mills  were  in  the  neighborhood;  nor  did  the 
First  Church  fail  in  practical  support  of  the  undertaking.  The 
new  Congregational  parish  had,  as  its  original  trustees,  Solomon 
N.  Russell,  Thomas  D.  Peck,  and  L.  G.  Goodrich,  and  the  parish 
was  characterized  by  a  certain  close  community  feeling,  which 
was  a  legacy,  perhaps,  from  the  days  when  Pittsfield's  factory 
villages  were  less  accessible  and  more  sharply  separated.  On 
July  thirty-first,  1897,  the  corner  stone  was  laid  of  the  graceful 
gray  stone  edifice  on  the  west  side  of  Wahconah  Street.  The 
architect  was  H.  Neill  Wilson  of  Pittsfield.  The  building  was 
dedicated  on  January  fourteenth,  1898,  and  on  the  same  day 
the  Pilgrim  Memorial  Church  was  received  into  the  conference 
of  Berkshire  Congregational  churches.  Rev.  James  E.  Gregg, 
following  Mr.  Calkins,  was  installed  pastor  in  1903;  and  Mr. 
Gregg  was  succeeded  in  1909  by  the  minister  who  now  serves  the 
church,  Rev.  Warren  S.  Archibald. 

It  will  have  been  remembered  that  the  construction  of  St. 
Joseph's  Roman  Catholic  Church  was  commenced  in  1864. 
The  stately  ceremony  of  its  consecration,  celebrated  in  1889, 
marked  the  culminating  point  of  a  quarter-century  of  devoted 
endeavor  on  the  part  of  priest  and  parish;  and  with  truth  can  it 
be  said  that  the  edifice  of  St.  Joseph's  is  a  monument  to  the  life- 
work  of  one  man. 

Rev.  Edward  H.  Purcell  was  born  in  Donoughmore,  Ireland, 
July  fifteenth,   1827,  and  educated  in  his  native  land  for  the 


CHURCHES— I  155 

priesthood.  Having  been  ordained  in  May,  1853,  he  took  ship 
for  Boston,  where  he  arrived  in  July,  1853,  and  immediately 
came  to  Pittsfield.  In  the  following  year,  1854,  he  succeeded 
Father  Cuddihy,  whose  assistant  he  had  been  theretofore,  as 
pastor  of  St.  Joseph's;  and  in  that  office  he  remained  until  his 
death  in  Pittsfield,  November  ninth,  1891.  His  pastorate  at  St. 
Joseph's  covered  a  period  of  thirty-seven  years.  Merely  to  re- 
cord its  duration,  however,  is  by  no  means  to  express  adequately 
its  value  to  Catholicism  in  Pittsfield  or  in  Berkshire  County. 
While  Father  Purcell  was  not,  in  a  strict  sense,  one  of  the  pioneers 
of  his  faith  in  Western  Massachusetts,  he  was  familiar,  personally 
and  at  first-hand,  with  all  of  its  loyal  and  arduous  early  efforts 
to  plant  permanent  establishments  for  the  service  of  its  people 
in  this  part  of  the  state.  He  inherited  from  those  times  that 
simple  courage  and  that  infinite  patience  which  finally  overcome 
great  obstacles,  and  to  his  parishioners  he  imparted  the  same 
plain  virtues.  An  example  of  this  was  the  manner  in  which  the 
members  of  the  parish,  under  his  guidance,  freed  their  church 
edifice  from  its  heavy  construction  debt.  They  were  not  wealthy. 
Often  the  task  seemed  hopeless.  For  twenty-five  years  they 
applied  themselves  to  it.  At  length  the  duty  was  accomplished, 
St.  Joseph's  received  its  consecration,  and,  as  if  thereby  his 
earthly  mission  was  concluded,  their  beloved  priest  two  years 
later  passed  to  his  reward. 

Father  Purcell,  as  the  general  community  knew  him,  was  a 
neighborly,  humorsome,  easy-tempered  and  easy-going  man, 
suggesting  the  lovable  "P.P."  of  Irish  story.  He  was  so  long 
and  so  beneficently  concerned  in  Pittsfield  life  that  frequent  and 
unmistakable  evidence  was  given  of  the  high  esteem  in  which  he 
was  held  by  the  whole  town.  By  his  own  people  he  was  tenderly 
revered,  for  he  had  journeyed  with  them  from  youth  to  maturity; 
he  had  shared,  for  nearly  forty  years,  their  joys,  their  aspirations, 
and  their  sorrows;  he  had  seen  their  number  and  their  influence 
grow  steadily,  and  their  place  of  worship  change  from  a  rural 
chapel  to  a  noble  city  church;  and  he  had  always  upheld  before 
them  a  pattern  of  kindly,  guilelesss  manhood. 

An  enumeration  shall  not  here  be  attempted  of  the  many 
valuable  assistants  who  have  served  under  the  parish  priests  at 


156  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

St.  Joseph's.  One  of  them,  however,  compels  notice.  Rev. 
R.  S.  J.  Burke  was  born  at  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  in  1855, 
and  died  at  West  Springfield,  in  1904.  Although  he  was  curate 
under  Father  Purcell  for  only  a  few  years,  he  left  a  memorable 
imprint  upon  the  church  and  upon  the  town.  Father  Burke, 
whether  in  the  pulpit  or  on  the  platform,  was  an  orator  of  im- 
passioned eloquence,  and  often  returned  to  Pittsfield,  after  he 
ceased  to  be  a  resident  in  1882,  to  teach  vigorous  lessons  in  re- 
ligion and  in  patriotism. 

The  successor  of  Father  Purcell  was  the  Rev.  Terence  M. 
Smith,  who  was  born  in  Ireland  in  1849,  was  ordained  to  the 
priesthood  at  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  in  1875,  and  served 
pastorates  at  Palmer,  North  Adams,  Greenfield,  and  Lee,  before 
coming  to  St.  Joseph's.  He  died  at  Pittsfield  on  March  tenth, 
1900.  The  period  spanned  by  his  pastorate  was  notable  for  a 
striking  expansion  of  the  parochial  interests  under  his  charge. 
Father  Purcell  had  purchased  land  immediately  south  of  the 
church,  and  in  1896  Father  Smith  began  the  erection  thereon  of 
an  academy  and  a  convent  home  for  the  Sisters  of  St.  Joseph. 
The  building  was  first  occupied  by  the  Sisters  in  1897.  At  that 
time  it  was  the  only  Catholic  academy  in  the  diocese  where  in- 
struction was  given  in  the  more  advanced  branches  of  learning. 
After  two  years,  the  purpose  of  the  seminary  was  altered,  and 
the  curriculum  was  changed  to  that  of  a  parochial  high  school. 
In  1897,  Father  Smith  acquired  land  on  First  Street  in  the  rear  of 
the  convent,  built  there  a  school  building,  and  opened,  in  1899, 
St.  Joseph's  parochial  school.  The  anxious  and  thoughtful 
labor  involved  in  supervising  the  establishment  of  these  institu- 
tions was  not  the  only  unusual  burden  shouldered  by  Father 
Smith.  In  1893,  it  had  become  evident  to  the  diocesan  authori- 
ties that  the  number  of  worshipers  at  St.  Joseph's  had  far  out- 
grown the  capacity  of  a  single  church,  and  that  the  parish  must 
be  divided.  The  result  of  this  decision  was  St.  Charles  Church, 
of  which  mention  is  later  to  be  made;  but  here  it  is  to  be  observed 
that  the  division  of  a  parish,  especially  of  one  so  endeared  to  its 
older  members  as  was  St.  Joseph's,  is  a  process  of  peculiar  trial 
for  pastor  and  for  people,  and  that  Father  Smith  sustained  his 
share  of  it  with  sympathetic  discretion. 


CHURCHES— I  157 

Rev.  James  Boyle  followed  him  in  the  pastorate  of  St. 
Joseph's  in  1900.  Impressive  as  had  been  the  advance  of  Catho- 
licism in  Pittsfield  during  the  pastorate  of  Father  Smith,  its 
forwardness  was  no  less  marked  under  the  ministration  of  his 
successor.  In  1913,  St,  Joseph's  parish  again  was  necessarily 
divided,  and  the  parish  of  St.  Mark's  was  established  in  the 
western  part  of  the  city,  with  a  chapel  on  Onota  Street  which  was 
opened  in  May  of  that  year.  In  the  preceding  March,  announce- 
ment had  been  made  of  the  purchase  of  land  at  the  corner  of 
Tyler  and  Plunkett  Streets  for  the  use  of  a  future  Catholic 
parish  in  the  northeast  section.  Meanwhile,  the  congregations 
at  St.  Joseph's  taxed  and  overtaxed  the  capacity  of  the  church. 

Father  Boyle  was  a  native  of  Birkenhead,  England,  where 
he  was  born  August  fifteenth,  1845.  When  he  was  a  child,  his 
parents  came  to  the  United  States.  His  early  youth  was  one  of 
spirited  adventure.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  enlisted  for  the 
Civil  War  in  the  Thirty-seventh  regiment  of  New  York  volun- 
teers, presenting  himself  to  the  officers  in  the  disguise  of  a  drum- 
mer boy.  He  forthwith  carried  a  rifle,  however,  instead  of  a 
drum,  and  on  the  field  of  Fredericksburg  he  was  promoted  to 
the  rank  of  sergeant.  This  was  when  he  was  seventeen;  a  year 
later  he  was  a  lieutenant.  After  the  war,  he  obtained  work  in 
the  treasury  and  post-office  departments,  and  at  the  cost  of  much 
self-sacrifice  educated  himself  for  the  priesthood.  He  was 
graduated  from  the  Catholic  seminary  at  Montreal,  and  in  1875 
at  Springfield  was  ordained.  In  1900  he  came  to  Pittsfield  from 
Ware,  Massachusetts,  and  in  Pittsfield  he  died,  June  eleventh,  1913. 

Strength  of  spirit  and  strength  of  intellect  were  his  in  no  ordi- 
nary combination,  for  they  were  welded  by  the  sympathy  of  a 
man  who  knew  mankind  and  to  whom  mankind  was  readily 
drawn.  The  furnace  of  war  and  privation  had  sternly  forged 
his  character;  a  gentle  humanity  inspired  it.  He  was  handsome 
and  distinguished  in  face  and  figure,  and  in  manner  courteous  and 
approachable.  An  omniverous  reader  of  good  books,  he  was 
the  cause  of  the  reading  of  them  by  others,  and  a  watchful  sup- 
porter of  public  education.  The  broad  duties  of  patriotism  had 
a  no  more  zealous  advocate  than  he  in  Pittsfield,  nor  one  more 
zealous  to  practice  what  in  speech  he  upheld. 


158  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

The  present  pastor  of  St.  Joseph's,  Rev.  Bernard  S.  Conaty, 
became  Father  Boyle's  successor  in  1913. 

The  interior  of  the  edifice  was  renovated  and  greatly  beauti- 
fied immediately  prior  to  the  consecration  during  the  pastorate 
of  Father  Purcell,  and  again  in  1901,  when  some  added  conven- 
ience in  the  seating  facilities  was  gained  by  rearrangement. 
Long  before  the  latter  year,  however,  the  number  of  parishioners 
of  St.  Joseph's  was  obviously  too  large  for  the  size  of  the  church, 
and  a  division  of  the  parish  was  deemed  necessary  by  the  Rt. 
Rev,  Thomas  D.  Beaven,  the  bishop  of  the  diocese. 

This  was  effected  in  1893,  and  on  the  evening  of  November 
fifth  of  that  year  the  members  of  the  new  parish  were  assembled 
at  the  Coliseum  on  North  Street.  Their  pastor,  Rev.  Charles  J. 
Boylan,  was  presented  to  them  by  Rev.  Terence  M.  Smith,  the 
pastor  of  St.  Joseph's.  Father  Boylan  at  this  meeting  headed 
the  subscription  for  the  building  of  a  new  church  by  a  personal 
contribution  of  $500,  and  he  announced  that  he  would  name  the 
church  St.  Charles  Borromeo,  because  it  was  on  that  saint's  day, 
November  fourth,  that  he  had  arrived  in  Pittsfield,  He  cele- 
brated the  first  mass  of  the  new  parish  in  the  Coliseum,  on  No- 
vember twelfth,  1893,  and  services  were  regularly  held  there  for 
more  than  a  year. 

Ground  was  broken  for  the  edifice  of  St.  Charles  in  May, 
1894.  The  site  selected,  on  Briggs  Avenue,  was  on  a  command- 
ing rise  of  ground  in  the  northwestern  part  of  the  city.  The 
architect  was  John  W.  Donahue  of  Springfield,  whose  design  was 
a  free  adaptation  of  the  early  English  Gothic,  executed  in  brick 
with  marble  facings.  The  corner  stone  was  laid  by  Bishop 
Beaven  on  October  seventh,  1894;  on  the  following  December 
ninth  mass  was  first  celebrated  in  the  basement  of  the  new 
building,  and  there  services  were  conducted,  pending  the  com- 
pletion of  the  edifice. 

The  pastorate  of  Rev.  Charles  J.  Boylan  continued  until 
December,  1897.  He  was  a  clergyman  well-adapted  for  the 
task  of  establishing  a  new  church,  for  he  possessed  tact,  mag- 
netism, and  an  unfailing  sense  of  duty  to  his  sacred  charge. 
Father  Boylan  was  born  in  County  Cavan,  Ireland,  in  May, 
1854,  and  was  ordained  to  the  priesthood  in  1878,  at  Montreal. 


CHURCHES— I  159 

On  July  twenty-sixth,  1913,  he  died  at  Springfield,  being  then 
pastor  of  All  Souls  Church  in  that  city.  Although  he  labored  in 
Pittsfield  for  only  four  years,  he  impressed  his  character  strongly 
upon  the  parish  of  which  the  beginnings  were  confided  to  his 
care.  Rev.  William  H.  Goggin  was  Father  Boylan's  successor 
at  St.  Charles,  serving  from  January,  1898,  until  April,  1902. 
His  pastorate  witnessed  in  March,  1899,  the  impressive  blessing 
of  the  bell,  a  gift  from  two  parishioners;  and  also  the  dedication 
of  the  church  by  Bishop  Beaven  in  June,  1901.  The  next  pastor 
was  Rev.  C.  H.  Dolan,  who  was  succeeded  in  December,  1903, 
by  Rev.  William  J.  Dower;  and  Father  Dower  continues  to 
serve  the  church.  The  same  spirit  of  earnest  effort  and  self- 
denial,  which  characterized  the  successful  endeavors  of  the 
parishioners  of  St.  Joseph's  to  free  their  church  from  debt,  had 
a  parallel  result  in  the  parish  of  St.  Charles;  and  the  newer 
church,  like  the  older,  moved  steadily  forward  in  prosperity. 

The  second  division  of  St.  Joseph's  parish  was  accomplished 
in  1913,  when  St.  Mark's  chapel,  designed  as  a  temporary  ac- 
commodation until  a  church  should  be  built  on  the  corner  of 
West  and  Onota  Streets,  was  opened  on  May  fourth  of  that  year 
on  Onota  Street.  The  priest  first  appointed  to  St.  Mark's  was 
Rev.  Michael  J.  Leonard,  who  still  serves  there,  his  parishioners 
being  the  Roman  Catholics  resident  in  the  western  part  of  the 
city. 

Finally,  in  1915,  the  parish  of  St.  Joseph's  was  necessarily 
divided  for  the  third  time.  With  the  purpose  of  relieving  the 
strain  on  the  capacity  of  the  veteran  church,  Sunday  services 
were  instituted  in  a  moving  picture  theater  on  Tyler  Street  in 
January,  1915;  and  two  months  later  the  new  parish  of  St. 
Mary  of  the  Morning  Star  was  set  off  in  the  Morningside  dis- 
trict. The  first  pastor.  Rev.  Jeremiah  A.  Riordan,  came  to  St. 
Mary's  on  April  first,  1915.  Land  for  a  site  having  been  bought 
on  the  corner  of  Tyler  and  Plunkett  Streets,  the  result  of  the 
spirited  endeavors  of  Father  Riordan  justified  the  announce- 
ment, early  in  1916,  that  a  new  church  would  be  erected  during 
the  year.  Sunday  services  continued  to  be  held  in  the  theater, 
while  daily  mass  was  celebrated  in  a  small  chapel  in  St.  Mary's 
rectory  on  Tyler  Street. 


160  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

In  1876,  the  French  Roman  CathoHcs  of  Pittsfield  worshiped 
in  the  humble  wooden  church  which  had  been  built  in  1844  by 
Father  Brady  of  St.  Joseph's,  on  Melville  Street.  Their  devoted 
priest  was  Rev.  Joseph  Quevillon,  a  man  of  rare  saintliness. 
He  had  come  to  Pittsfield  in  1870,  at  the  age  of  sixty-five,  and 
four  years  later  he  had  completely  and  hopelessly  impoverished 
himself  by  purchasing,  at  the  expenditure  of  all  his  slender  sav- 
ings, the  Melville  Street  church,  and  by  contracting  a  heavy 
personal  debt  for  improving  its  interior.  Father  Quevillon  re- 
signed his  pastorate  in  1882,  and  on  August  sixth,  1891,  he  died 
at  Pittsfield.  He  was  born  at  St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  Canada,  in 
1805.  The  name  of  his  birthplace  was  curiously  indicative  of 
his  life  of  piety  and  singleness  of  purpose.  In  his  gentle  soul 
was  the  heroic  quality  which  prohibits  thought  of  self.  Even 
in  his  old  age  he  knew  not  ease,  and  hardly  knew  comfort,  save 
at  the  insistence  of  his  loving  parishioners. 

Father  Quevillon's  successor  was  Rev.  Alexander  L.  Desaul- 
niers,  who  was  followed  in  1890  by  Rev.  L.  O.  Triganne.  The 
pastorate  of  the  latter  was  distinguished  by  a  marked  growth  and 
energizing  of  the  parish  activities,  and  by  the  definite  formulation 
of  plans  for  a  new  edifice,  in  pursuance  of  which  the  labors  of 
Father  Triganne  and  of  his  people  were  indomitable.  Rev. 
Amable  I'Heureux,  assuming  the  pastorate  in  1893,  carried  these 
labors  to  a  successful  conclusion;  and  the  corner  stone  of  Notre 
Dame  de  Bon  Conseil  was  laid  on  September  fifteenth,  1895,  on 
the  site  on  Melville  Street,  of  historic  interest  to  all  the  Roman 
Catholics  of  the  county.  The  spacious  brick  church,  in  the 
Romanesque  style  of  architecture,  and  of  satisfying  beauty 
within  as  well  as  without,  was  dedicated  by  Bishop  Beaven  on 
May  second,  1897;  and,  like  several  other  church  edifices  in 
Pittsfield,  it  is  impressive  evidence  of  what  may  be  accomplished 
by  the  patient  and  well-directed  zeal  of  people  rich  only  in  de- 
termination. Their  spirit  was  thoroughly  exemplified  by 
Father  I'Heureux,  who,  struggling  constantly  against  the  ob- 
stacle of  enfeebled  health,  remained  with  the  church  of  Notre 
Dame  until  1901.  He  was  then  succeeded  by  Rev.  Clovis 
Baudoin.  Rev.  Levi  J.  Achim,  the  present  pastor,  assumed  his 
duties  in  Pittsfield  in  1910. 


CHURCHES— I  161 

The  rapidly  increasing  number  of  residents  of  foreign  descent, 
shortly  after  1905,  led  to  the  establishment  of  flourishing  Roman 
Catholic  mission  sdevoted  to  worshipers  of  Italian  and  of 
Polish  birth,  and  under  the  charge  of  priests  assigned  by  the 
head  of  the  diocese.  In  1915,  services  for  the  Italian  Catholics 
were  held  regularly  in  the  Sunday  school  rooms  at  St.  Joseph's; 
and  the  announcement  was  made  that  land  on  Fenn  Street  had 
been  obtained  for  the  site  of  a  Catholic  church  for  the  Italian 
people. 


CHAPTER  XI 
CHURCHES— II 

THE  First  Baptist  Church  had  in  1876  the  incitement  of  a 
recent  stimulation  produced  by  the  complete  remodeling 
of  its  edifice  on  North  Street  and  by  the  addition  of  a 
chapel  in  the  rear.  The  rededication  of  what  was  in  effect  a  new 
building  had  been  celebrated  in  1873,  during  the  pastorate  of 
Rev.  C.  H.  Spalding.  In  1875  Mr.  Spalding  resigned.  The 
pulpit  was  then  supplied  for  two  years  by  Rev.  W.  W.  Hammond; 
and  in  June,  1877,  Rev.  O.  P.  Gifford  was  ordained  minister  of 
the  church.  His  successor  w^as  Rev.  George  W.  Gile,  who  came 
to  the  church  in  July,  1879. 

The  entire  cost  of  the  improvement  and  enlarging  of  the 
house  of  worship  had  been  in  the  neighborhood  of  $40,000; 
but  it  does  not  appear  that  the  incurrence  of  a  burden  of  this 
sort  was  so  troublesome  to  the  Baptists  as  was  the  expense  of  re- 
building their  edifices  to  the  members  of  other  Pittsfield  churches 
in  the  same  decade,  who,  with  somewhat  curious  misfortune, 
chose  to  assume  the  task  of  raising  money  for  substantial  struc- 
tural improvements  during  a  period  of  distressfully  hard  times. 

Mr.  Gile,  a  vigorous,  practical  leader,  left  a  strong  impression 
upon  the  First  Baptist  Church,  as  well  as  upon  the  town.  His 
co-operation  with  other  clergymen  in  sustaining  such  charitable 
enterprises  as  the  Union  for  Home  Work  and  in  shaping  the 
organization  of  the  national  Congress  of  Churches,  which  origi- 
nated in  Pittsfield  in  1883,  was  of  pronounced  value,  while  the 
affairs  of  the  church  over  which  he  immediately  presided  were 
conducted  by  him  with  intelligent  and  inspiring  fidelity.  In 
February,  1884,  Mr.  Gile  withdrew,  and  Rev.  Edward  O.  Hol- 
yoke  was  ordained  minister  in  the  following  September.  The 
winter  of  1884-1885  was  marked  by  a  series  of  gratifying  revival 
services  at  the  church,  and  during  the  brief  pastorate  of  Mr. 


CHURCHES— II  16S 

Holyoke,  who  resigned  in  1887,  there  was  a  gain  of  250  mem- 
bers. 

In  1887,  Rev.  Orville  Coates  became  pastor  and  remained 
until  1893.  An  attractive  preacher,  he  helped  to  extend  the 
field  covered  by  the  church's  activities  conspicuously  through 
the  Baptist  mission  and  Sunday  school  established  at  Morning- 
side.  The  energetic  pastorate  at  the  First  Baptist  Church  of 
Rev.  Herbert  S.  Johnson  began  in  May,  1893,  and  continued 
until  his  resignation  in  1899;  Rev.  Gove  G.  Johnson  was  in- 
stalled there  in  January,  1900;  Rev.  F.  W.  Lockwood  followed 
in  November,  1902;  and  in  1909  Rev.  Charles  P.  MacGregor 
accepted  the  pastorate,  in  which  he  now  serves. 

An  harmonious  devotion  to  mutual  endeavor  appears  to  have 
distinguished  the  membership  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  in 
Pittsfield  since  its  pioneer  days;  and  its  later  ministers,  like  its 
earlier  pastors,  were  men  equipped  to  direct  and  foster  this 
characteristic  of  the  society,  of  which  the  recent  career,  while 
one  of  sound  growth  and  of  consistent  value  to  the  higher  life 
of  town  and  city,  presents  few  features  deserving  historical  re- 
mark. At  the  observance  of  the  church's  centennial  anniver- 
sary, celebrated  in  March,  1901,  its  spirit  was  abundantly  ex- 
emplified, and  the  story  of  the  many  faithful  men  and  women, 
to  whom  it  owed  its  honorable  position,  was  vividly  recalled. 

The  Baptist  Sunday  school  mission  at  Morningside,  already 
mentioned  in  connection  with  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  Orville 
Coates,  found  so  broad  an  opportunity  for  usefulness  that  a 
wooden  chapel  on  Spring  Street  was  dedicated  for  its  occupancy 
in  March,  1895.  In  May  of  the  same  year.  Rev.  James  Grant 
became  assistant  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  under  Rev. 
Herbert  S.  Johnson;  and  the  project  soon  took  definite  shape  of 
establishing  a  new  Baptist  society  in  the  Morningside  section, 
where  the  population  was  then  rapidly  increasing.  With  the 
approval  and  hearty  assistance  of  the  mother  society,  this  was 
effected  in  1896,  when,  on  April  twenty-ninth,  the  Morningside 
Baptist  Church  was  organized,  with  118  charter  members.  Mr. 
Grant,  a  man  of  attractive  enthusiasm  and  of  graceful,  pregnant 
speech,  was  the  first  pastor.  The  new  church  flourished,  holding 
its  services  in  the  Spring  Street  chapel.     Rev.  L.  A.  Palmer  fol- 


164  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

lowed  Mr.  Grant  in  December,  1900;  Rev.  J.  Bruce  Oilman 
succeeded  him  in  1903;  and  in  1909  Rev.  H.  C.  Leach,  the  present 
pastor,  was  installed. 

The  congregation  speedily  outgrew  the  accommodations  af- 
forded by  the  church's  original  home;  and  at  length  the  resolute 
and  laborious  efforts  to  provide  means  for  the  erection  of  a  suit- 
able edifice  were  successful.  A  site  was  obtained  at  the  inter- 
section of  Grove  and  Tyler  Streets.  There  the  corner  stone  was 
laid,  July  second,  1911.  The  attendant  exercises  formed  a  sig- 
nificant part  of  the  celebration  in  honor  of  the  150th  anniversary 
of  the  founding  of  the  town.  The  handsome  and  spacious  edifice 
of  brick  was  dedicated  on  March  second,  1913,  and,  lying  in  a 
populous  and  busy  district,  it  has  been  the  center  of  much 
evangelical  diligence. 

Under  the  auspices  also  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  a  mis- 
sion chapel  was  built  on  Elm  Street,  at  the  corner  of  Northum- 
berland Road,  which  was  dedicated  on  October  fifth,  1913. 

A  series  of  religious  meetings,  held  during  the  winter  of  1886- 
87  in  a  hall  in  Central  Block  on  North  Street  by  adherents  to 
the  Unitarian  system  of  belief,  resulted  in  the  organization  of 
Unity  Church  and  ultimately  in  the  erection  of  the  first  Uni- 
tarian house  of  worship  in  Berkshire  County.  The  original 
president  of  the  society,  which  was  formed  in  April,  1887,  was 
Edward  T.  Fisher,  the  proprietor  of  schools  for  boys  both  in 
Lanesborough  and  Pittsfield,  Rev.  J.  F.  Moore  of  Greenfield 
conducted  services  in  a  hall  on  North  Street;  and  in  Novem- 
ber, 1887,  Rev.  W.  W.  Fenn  was  installed  as  the  church's  first 
pastor.  Mr.  Fenn,  whose  ability  led  him  later  to  the  posi- 
tion of  dean  of  the  Harvard  Divinity  School,  soon  brought  the 
young  society  to  a  stage  where  a  church  building  seemed 
necessary.  In  March,  1889,  land  was  purchased  on  the  west  side 
of  North  Street,  between  Bradford  and  Linden  Streets;  and  there 
a  wooden  edifice  was  erected,  which  was  dedicated  January 
seventh,  1890.  The  cost  of  land  and  building  was  about  $15,000. 
This  transaction  the  members  of  the  society  financed  not  without 
difficulty;  but  the  selection  of  the  site  and  the  time  of  its  pur- 
chase were  alike  fortunate,  for  the  value  of  real  estate  on  upper 
North  Street  was  then  on  the  point  of  beginning  to  increase  rapidly . 


CHURCHES— II  165 

In  1891  Rev.  Carl  G.  Horst  succeeded  Mr.  Fenn,  and  in 
1895  Rev.  C.  W.  Park  wasi  nstalled  in  a  brief  pastorate  which 
was  terminated  within  a  few  months  by  his  death.  Rev.  G.  S. 
Anderson  then  filled  the  pulpit  for  a  little  over  two  years.  He 
was  followed,  from  December,  1898,  to  April,  1899,  by  Rev. 
John  A.  Bevington.  Assuming  charge  on  the  first  Sunday  in 
March,  1900,  Rev.  Nathaniel  Seaver,  Jr.,  served  the  church  until 
he  was  succeeded  by  the  present  pastor.  Rev.  Earl  C.  Davis,  in 
April,  1905. 

In  the  summer  of  1912  the  society  accepted  an  opportunity 
to  sell  with  advantage  its  North  Street  property,  which  had 
nearly  quadrupled  in  value  in  twenty  years,  and  to  acquire  the 
former  residence,  on  Linden  Street,  of  Marshall  Wilcox.  Thence 
removal  was  accordingly  made,  and  the  building  on  North  Street 
was  leased  by  its  new  owner  for  a  moving  picture  theater. 
Comfortably  established  on  Linden  Street,  the  church  found  it- 
self in  possession  of  a  home  well-adapted  to  its  needs.  Remodel- 
ing and  enlargement  made  it  possible  to  combine  under  one  roof 
the  functions  of  a  church  building,  a  parish  house,  and  a  parson- 
age. 

A  troublesome  condition  of  discord,  the  misfortune  of  St. 
Stephen's  Episcopal  Church  for  many  years,  had  been  apparently 
alleviated  during  the  rectorship  of  Rev.  Leonard  K.  Storrs,  who 
resigned  in  April,  1875,  and  was  then  succeeded  by  Rev.  William 
McGlathery.  Mr.  Storrs  was  a  man  of  conciliatory  tempera- 
ment, and  under  his  placid  administration  the  vexatious  elements 
of  internal  strife,  which  had  long  disturbed  St.  Stephen's  Church 
and  parish,  slumbered  restfully.  Mr.  McGlathery,  however, 
seemed  to  be  unable  to  prevent  their  awakening,  and  he  with- 
drew from  the  local  ministry  in  February,  1881.  For  nearly  a 
year  St.  Stephen's  was  without  a  rector.  In  January  of  the  fol- 
lowing year  it  made  its  election  of  Rev.  W.  W.  Newton,  and  be- 
came the  possessor  of  a  leader  of  an  extraordinary  and  vital 
personality. 

William  Wilberforce  Newton  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  No- 
vember fourth,  1843,  was  graduated  from  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  in  1865,  and  in  1869  was  ordained  in  the  Episco- 
palian ministry,    a  vocation  to  which,  indeed,  he  had  been  with 


166  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

less  formality  already  summoned  by  virtue  of  a  distinguished 
clerical  lineage.  In  1877,  he  was  chosen  rector  of  St.  Paul's  in 
Boston,  and  he  came  from  St.  Paul's  to  Pittsfield.  There  he 
preached  for  the  last  time  in  July,  1899.  His  health,  then 
gravely  impaired,  thereafter  enforced  residence  for  some  years 
in  France.  On  June  twenty-fifth,  1914,  he  died  at  Brookline, 
Massachusetts.  The  most  obvious  characteristic  of  his  mind  was  its 
fecundity.  In  a  day  he  could  conceive  and  vizualize — nay, 
could  even  actually  initiate — more  worthy  enterprises,  parochial 
and  charitable,  than  the  devoted  energies  of  men  and  women 
could  fully  execute  in  a  year.  Publishers  printed  busily  his 
poems,  novels,  children's  stories  and  plays,  his  books  of  travel, 
criticism,  sermons,  and  biography.  With  few  of  the  contem- 
porary movements  in  religion,  sociology,  and  literature,  either 
in  this  country  or  abroad,  was  he  unacquainted.  He  addressed 
with  effect  gatherings  of  all  sorts,  ranging  from  soldiers'  re- 
unions and  political  meetings  to  Browning  societies  and  church 
congresses.  His  physical,  as  well  as  intellectual,  make-up 
equipped  him  in  his  prime  for  the  performance  of  much  labor, 
for  he  was  tall,  powerfully  built,  and  given  to  outdoor  exercise. 
His  face  was  ruddy  and  habitually  betokened  his  sociable  spirit 
of  kindly  humor. 

Under  his  restless  stimulation,  the  affairs  of  St.  Stephen's  be- 
gan to  assume  an  activity  to  which  they  had  not  quite  been  ac- 
customed. From  the  pulpit  Dr.  Newton  often  spoke  with  a 
poetical  mysticism  confusing  to  the  majority;  but  his  broad 
sympathy,  his  tolerance,  and  his  Christian  manliness  were  un- 
obscured,  and  the  strength  of  them  attracted  increased  congrega- 
tions. In  1887  he  launched  the  project  of  erecting  a  new  church 
edifice,  to  replace  the  structure  built  by  St.  Stephen's  in  1832. 
The  question  of  a  site  was  important.  The  land  which  the 
parish  held  under  a  grant  from  the  town,  complicated  by  an  odd 
tangle  of  legal  agreements  with  the  estate  of  Edward  A.  Newton, 
was  bounded  on  the  west  by  a  line  running  fourteen  feet  from 
the  town  hall  and  on  the  east  was  thirty-four  feet  from  the  Allen 
property.  A  special  town  meeting,  held  in  January,  1888,  voted 
to  accede  to  a  proposition  of  exchange  made  by  the  parish,  where- 
by the  latter  acquired  a  building  lot  adjoining  the  Allen  land. 


CHURCHES— II  167 

leaving  space  between  the  church  property  and  the  town  hall  for 
a  highway  to  Fenn  Street  from  Park  Square,  which  was  much 
desired  by  the  members  of  the  Methodist  Church.  The  select- 
men were  appointed  a  committee  to  exchange  deeds. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  Dr.  Newton's  parishioners  be- 
came involved  in  a  dissension  which  was  slightly  but  unhappily 
reminiscent  of  some  former  days  of  St.  Stephen's.  It  was  point- 
ed out  that  sites  other  than  that  secured  by  the  arrangement 
with  the  town  might  be  more  adequate.  Many  wished  a  church 
larger  and  more  imposing  than  the  edifice  contemplated  by  their 
rector.  Among  the  plots  of  land  suggested  for  it  were  the  present 
site  of  the  Berkshire  Home  for  Aged  Women  on  South  Street,  the 
land  at  the  north  corner  of  South  and  Church  Streets,  and  the 
Pomeroy  "Homestead"  lot  on  East  Street,  immediately  west  of 
Bartlett  Avenue.  At  length,  and  having  in  view  the  site  last 
named,  the  parish  voted,  in  August,  1888,  to  offer  a  release  to  the 
town  of  the  church  property  on  Park  Square  for  $20,500.  This 
bargain  was  stormily  declined  by  a  somewhat  acrid  town  meeting 
in  the  following  September;  and  after  a  few  adjustments  of 
boundary  lines,  the  corner  stone  of  the  new  St.  Stephen's  was 
laid,  July  eleventh,  1889,  on  the  Park  Square  lot. 

The  architects  were  Messrs.  Peabody  and  Stearns  of  Boston, 
and  they  selected  Longmeadow  sandstone  for  their  material. 
The  old  building  having  been  razed,  services  were  held  in  a 
wooden  parish  house,  which  was  put  up  on  the  rear  of  the  lot  in 
the  summer  of  1889.  On  May  fourteenth,  1890,  the  present 
church  building  was  dedicated. 

In  its  new  home,  the  church  continued  steadily  to  gain  in 
usefulness  and  solidarity  under  the  enthusiastic  direction  of  Dr. 
Newton.  Early  in  1900,  a  distressing  affliction  which  prohibited 
the  use  of  his  voice  compelled  him  to  withdraw  from  ministerial 
work.  He  was  succeeded  at  St.  Stephen's  by  Rev.  Thomas  W. 
Nickerson.  Mr.  Nickerson,  whose  executive  ability  was  un- 
common, in  a  few  years  placed  the  affairs  of  the  parish  upon  a 
basis  more  secure  than  that  which  they  had  possessed  under  his 
predecessors.  He  resigned  in  1914;  and  in  1915  he  was  followed 
by  Rev.  Stephen  E.  Keeler,  Jr.,  the  present  rector. 

The  will  of  Miss  Elizabeth  Stuart  Newton,  who  died  in  1891, 


168  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

made  St.  Stephen's  parish  the  owner  of  the  Edward  A.  Newton 
homestead  at  the  corner  of  Wendell  Avenue  and  East  Street,  up- 
on the  condition  that  the  property  should  always  be  utilized  for 
parochial  purposes,  and  accordingly  the  historic  house,  built 
during  the  Revolution  by  Col.  James  Easton,  became  the  church 
rectory.  By  private  benefaction,  also,  the  interior  of  the  church 
has  been  from  time  to  time  embellished,  notable  gifts  from  indi- 
viduals having  been  those  of  the  altar,  the  pulpit,  and  the  organ. 

An  Episcopalian  mission  was  initiated  at  Morningside  in 
1908,  which  shortly  afterward  developed  into  St.  Martin's 
Church.  The  church  building  on  Woodlawn  Avenue  was  given, 
as  was  the  land,  by  friends  of  the  new  parish  in  Lenox  and 
Pittsfield.  Partly  self-sustaining  and  partly  supported  by 
diocesan  aid,  St.  Martin's  has  had  as  pastors  in  charge  Rev.  C.  J. 
Sniflen,  Rev.  C.  O.  Arnold,  Rev.  C.  P.  Otis,  and  the  present  pas- 
tor. Rev.  F.  C.  Wheelock. 

The  members  of  the  Protestant  German  Evangelical  Parish, 
so  incorporated  in  1861,  worshiped  in  1876  in  the  wooden 
church  which  had  been  built  on  First  Street  in  1865.  Their 
pastor,  Rev.  John  D.  Haeger,  had  served  them  since  1868.  In 
February,  1888,  he  resigned,  being  then  seventy-eight  years  of 
age.  The  parochial  conditions  were  not  auspicious.  The  mem- 
bership of  the  church  was  only  fifty-five.  Services  were  con- 
ducted exclusively  in  the  German  language;  and  a  strong  feeling 
prevailed,  especially  among  the  young  people  of  the  parish,  that 
this  restriction  should  be  loosened,  a  step  which  Mr.  Haeger,  it 
appears,  was  disinclined  from  taking.  Rev.  John  David  Haeger 
died  in  Brooklyn,  New  York,  on  June  twenty-fourth,  1900,  in  the 
ninety-first  year  of  his  age.  His  grave  is  in  the  Lutheran  cem- 
etery at  Middle  Village,  Long  Island.  Affectionately  called 
"Father"  Haeger  by  his  Pittsfield  flock,  he  was  a  fine  type  of  the 
old-fashioned,  simple-hearted,  conscientious,  village  clergyman. 
His  service  in  the  town  was  marked  by  unusual  self-denial,  and 
of  the  small  salary  which  could  be  allowed  to  him  he  was  ac- 
customed to  contribute  a  large  portion  to  the  treasury  of  the 
church. 

In  April,  1888,  Rev.  William  F.  E.  Hoppe,  was  chosen  pastor, 
and  in  the  same  month  he  preached  the  first  sermon  in  English 


CHURCHES— II  169 

ever  delivered  in  the  church  by  its  minister.  Under  his  efficient 
pastorate,  both  the  church  membership  and  the  congregations 
were  very  considerably  increased.  A  new  edifice  was  soon  proved 
to  be  a  necessity,  and  a  building  committee  applied  itself  to  the 
task.  In  1892  the  corporate  name  was  altered,  by  consent  of  the 
legislature,  to  Zion's  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church. 

The  corner  stone  of  the  new  brick  church,  occupying  the  site 
of  the  original  structure  on  First  Street,  was  laid  on  July  thir- 
teenth, 1892,  with  appropriate  ceremonies,  the  building  having 
then  been  so  far  advanced  that  the  congregation  was  able  to  as- 
semble therein.  Mr.  Hoppe,  to  whose  energy  and  breadth  of 
view  the  people  of  the  church  were  greatly  indebted,  resigned 
the  pastorate  in  April,  1893,  and  in  the  following  June  he  was 
followed  by  Rev.  Werner  L.  Genzmer,  the  present  pastor.  The 
rejuvenation  of  the  church,  happily  signalized  by  the  erection  of 
its  new  house  of  worship,  was  productive  of  a  gain  in  usefulness 
which  has  been  maintained  with  steadiness  in  more  recent  years. 

On  May  fifth,  1874,  during  the  first  pastorate  in  Pittsfield  of 
Rev.  John  F.  Clymer,  the  Methodist  Episcopal  society  dedicated 
its  present  church  on  Fenn  Street.  The  cost  of  the  land  and 
the  building  was  in  the  neighborhood  of  $115,000.  In  the  town 
of  those  days  the  undertaking  was  one  of  magnitude.  The 
members  of  the  Methodist  Church  were  then,  with  only  two  or 
three  exceptions,  people  of  moderate  means.  However,  they 
were  stout-hearted  and  loyal;  and  at  the  time  of  the  dedication 
of  the  edifice  the  numerous  pledges  made  of  the  subscription  of 
funds  seemed  to  assure  the  financial  future  of  the  society. 
Dr.  Clymer  was  followed  as  preacher  in  charge  by  Rev. 
David  W.  Gates,  who  served  until  1878.  Meanwhile,  a  mone- 
tary panic  had  inflicted  itself  upon  the  country.  A  great  ma- 
jority of  the  subscription  pledges,  made  in  good  faith  by  the 
enthusiastic  Pittsfield  Methodists  in  1874,  were  now  impossible 
of  collection.  Indebted  in  a  sum  of  over  $60,000,  the  society 
faced  a  situation  hazardous  to  its  very  existence.  When  the 
question  of  assigning  a  preacher  to  Pittsfield  was  brought  before 
the  annual  Troy  Conference  in  1878,  it  was  plainly  intimated 
there  that  the  appointed  clergyman  would  be  called  upon  merely 
to  preside  over  a  collapse  and  to  save  what  wreckage  he  could; 


170  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

in  Pittsfield  many  citizens,  and  many  of  the  Methodists  them- 
selves, believed  that  the  society  must  inevitably  lose  the  hand- 
some church  edifice,  which  had  been  proudly  welcomed  by  the 
town  only  four  years  previously.  At  this  critical  juncture,  Rev. 
Frederick  Widmer  was  assigned  to  the  Pittsfield  pastorate. 

The  assertion  is  hardly  too  strong  that  through  Mr.  Widmer 
the  Fenn  Street  church  was  saved  to  the  society.  A  sympathetic 
and  hopeful  friend  in  adversity,  he  appears  to  have  been  none  the 
less  positive  and  determined.  It  is  related  of  him  that  one  Sun- 
day, having  opened  the  services  by  observing  that  he  would  not 
continue  to  occupy  the  pulpit  until  certain  minor  payments  had 
been  made  for  the  care  of  the  building,  he  immediately  picked  up 
his  hat  and  went  home.  The  astonished  congregation  at  once 
contributed  enough  money  to  pay  the  bills,  and  Mr.  Widmer  in 
a  few  minutes  resumed  the  pulpit. 

In  order  to  reduce,  or  even  to  carry,  the  construction  debt, 
great  personal  sacrifices  were  needed,  sacrifices  declared  by  the 
older  members  of  the  society  to  be  incomprehensible  to  a  later 
generation.  These  self-denials  Mr.  W'idmer  was  able  to  inspire. 
When  he  left  Pittsfield,  in  1880,  the  church  had  crossed  the 
Slough  of  Despond  in  which,  two  years  before,  he  had  found  it 
struggling.  One-half  of  the  debt  had  been  wiped  out,  and  the 
current  expenses  had  been  squarely  met.  More  important,  per- 
haps, was  the  development  of  a  courageous  spirit,  an  impressive 
possession  of  the  society  which  was  operative  after  the  struggle 
itself  had  been  won.  The  original  mortgage,  given  in  1873,  was 
paid  in  1911,  and  was  then  publicly  and  joyfully  burned. 

Succeeding  Mr.  Widmer  were  Rev.  H.  L.  Grant  in  1880, 
Rev.  George  Skene  in  1882,  Rev.  C.  D.  Hills  in  1885,  Rev.  J.  E.  C. 
Sawyer  in  1888,  Rev.  John  F.  Clymer  in  1892.  Dr.  Clymer  had 
previously,  from  1872  to  1875,  been  the  preacher  on  the  local 
circuit,  when  to  his  influence  had  been  due  much  of  the  enthus- 
iasm resulting  in  the  erection  of  the  new  church.  He  was  a 
bold,  energetic,  plain  speaking  man,  not  afraid,  at  least  in  his 
younger  days,  to  expose  himself  to  the  charge  of  sensationalism. 
In  1903  he  died  in  Dansville,  New  York,  having  served  for  forty 
years  in  the  ministry.  At  the  Methodist  Church  in  Pittsfield,  he 
was  followed  in  1896  by  Rev.  John  W.  Thompson.     Dr.  Thomp- 


CHURCHES— II  171 

son,  on  the  platform  as  well  as  in  the  pulpit,  was  a  magnetic  and 
eloquent  orator,  a  popular  favorite  with  all  sorts  of  Pittsfield 
audiences.  He  was  born  at  Jay,  New  York,  in  1843,  and  died 
at  Nassau,  in  the  same  state,  May  fourth,  1910.  His  patriotic 
addresses  delivered  during  the  excitement  of  the  war  with  Spain 
are  still  held  admiringly  in  local  remembrance.  In  1901  Rev. 
Charles  L.  Leonard  succeeded  Dr.  Thompson  in  Pittsfield,  and 
in  1909  Rev.  J.  A.  Hamilton,  now  the  presiding  preacher,  was 
assigned  to  the  church.  Under  these  leaders  the  development  of 
of  the  society  has  been  gratifying,  and  to  it  each  of  them  has 
made  his  salutary  contribution. 

An  active  and  helpful  offspring  of  the  church  has  been  its 
Epworth  Mission,  which,  in  1892,  obtained  from  the  city  consent 
to  use  an  unoccupied  schoolhouse  on  Francis  Avenue.  There 
mission  work  flourished  on  religious,  social,  and  vocational  lines, 
and  in  1906  the  mission  remodeled  and  occupied  its  building  on 
Linden  Street.  In  1895  the  former  parsonage  on  Pearl  Street 
was  sold,  and  a  minister's  home  built  on  Bartlett  Avenue.  The 
edifice  of  the  Methodist  Church  on  Fenn  Street  continued  to  af- 
ford to  the  city,  as  to  the  town,  the  largest  auditorium  in  Pitts- 
field, having  been  arranged  to  supply  capacity  for  seating  more 
than  two  thousand  persons;  and  it  was  therefore  the  scene  of 
important  meetings  and  memorial  exercises  held  during  the 
period  of  which  this  volume  treats. 

Significant  of  the  strength  of  the  veteran  society  was  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  Methodist  mission  at  Morningside  in  1900,  for 
which  a  wooden  chapel  was  in  the  same  year  built  at  the  corner 
of  Tyler  and  Plunkett  Streets.  There  mission  services  were 
regularly  held  for  a  number  of  years.  It  was  not  long  before  a 
movement  to  form  a  new  Methodist  society  in  the  northeastern 
part  of  the  city  was  inaugurated.  The  project  had  the  benefit 
of  the  earnest  and  stimulating  direction  of  Rev.  John  A.  Hamil- 
ton; and  the  result  was  the  organization  of  Trinity  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  effected  in  April,  1914. 

The  mission  chapel,  having  been  enlarged  and  improved,  was 
occupied  by  the  members  of  the  new  church  for  their  first  services 
in  May,  1914.  The  first  pastor  was  Rev.  Ralph  G.  Finley,  who 
was  succeeded  in  April,  1916,  by  Rev.  Robert  B.  Leslie.     Of 


172  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

particular  advantage  to  the  Trinity  M.  E.  Church  during  this 
formative  period  was  the  strong  support  of  two  auxihary  associa- 
tions, the  Trinity  Women's  Aid  Society  and  the  Men's  Brother- 
hood; and  the  church,  even  in  its  infancy,  was  enabled  to  play  a 
prominent  part  among  the  religious  activities  of  the  Morningside 
section. 

Rev.  J.  E.  Cross,  by  faith  a  Second  Adventist,  began  in 
1888  to  hold  religious  meetings  in  a  room  in  the  Backus  building 
on  Park  Square.  There  the  Advent  Christian  Society  appears 
to  have  been  formed  by  him  in  1888,  although  the  Second  Adven- 
tist Christian  Church,  with  Mr.  Cross  as  pastor,  was  not  formally 
organized  until  1890.  Their  present  church  edifice  on  Fenn 
Street  was  dedicated  by  the  Second  Adventists  on  January  first, 
1891.  The  pastorate  of  Mr.  Cross  was  followed  by  those  of 
Rev.  M.  A.  Potter  and  Rev.  C.  K.  Sweet,  and,  in  1899,  by  that 
of  Rev.  Chauncey  T.  Pike.  In  1905,  Mr.  Pike  withdrew  from 
the  leadership  of  the  Fenn  Street  church  and  assumed  direction 
of  the  Church  of  God,  having  its  home  in  a  hall  on  North  Street. 
Rev.  George  L.  Young  became  pastor  of  the  Second  Adventist 
Christian  Church  in  1907;  he  was  succeeded  in  1909  by  Rev. 
Harold  E.  Young;  and  the  present  pastor.  Rev.  Joseph  Miett, 
began  his  duties  there  in  1911. 

In  October,  1902,  four  residents  of  Pittsfield,  who  were  mem- 
bers of  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  in  Boston,  began  to 
meet  regularly  to  read  from  the  works  of  the  founder  of  that 
faith,  Mary  Baker  Eddy.  The  attendance  at  the  Pittsfield 
meetings  so  increased  that  in  June,  1904,  plans  were  discussed  of 
forming  a  permanent  organization.  These  were  forwarded  by 
two  students  of  the  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College,  who, 
in  the  summer  of  1904,  accepted  an  invitation  to  come  to  Pitts- 
field and  who  conducted  services  and  meetings  at  their  home  on 
Bartlett  Avenue  during  the  following  autumn  and  winter. 

A  hall  was  then  rented  in  the  Merrill  building  on  North 
Street,  and  there  the  first  public  Christian  Science  services  in 
Pittsfield  were  held  on  March  fifth,  1905.  On  April  fourth  was 
incorporated  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  Pittsfield,  Massa- 
chusetts, with  an  initial  membership  of  twenty-two.  The 
North  Street  hall  continued  to  be  used  by  the  church  for  two 


CHURCHES— II  173 

years.  In  1907  a  residence  at  131  South  Street  was  bought  by 
the  church  and  completely  remodeled  for  its  purposes,  so  as  to 
provide  an  auditorium  and  a  reading  room.  Services  were  first 
held  there  on  December  eighth,  1907;  and  there  the  church  has 
since  remained.  The  First  Readers  since  the  formation  of  the 
church  have  been  Archie  E.  Van  Ostrand,  Cornelius  C.  Cook, 
and  Henry  A.  Germain. 

Among  adherents  to  the  Jewish  faith  who  first  made  their 
homes  in  Pittsfield  was  Joseph  R.  Newman,  who  became  a  resi- 
dent of  the  village  in  1857.  In  the  same  year  came  also  two 
brothers,  Moses  and  Louis  England.  The  local  Society  Ansha 
Amonim  ("Men  of  Religion")  was  formed  in  1869  by  twenty 
heads  of  Jewish  families,  mostly  of  German  lineage.  Its  original 
place  of  worship  was  in  the  house  of  Charles  Wolf  on  Jubilee 
Hill,  near  the  present  corner  of  Robbins  and  Columbus  Avenues, 
and  the  first  meeting  of  record  was  on  November  fourteenth, 
1869.  The  society  was  incorporated  in  the  following  year,  and 
the  congregation  worshiped  in  the  houses  of  its  members 
until  1882,  when  a  hall  was  occupied  in  the  building  at  the  north 
corner  of  Fenn  and  North  Streets,  In  1900  the  society  migrated 
to  the  home  which  it  at  present  occupies  in  the  Melville  building 
on  North  Street.  A  Sunday  school  has  been  maintained  since 
1885. 

The  Society  Ansha  Amonim  began  as  early  as  1879  to  discard 
by  degrees  some  of  the  orthodox  forms  of  worship  which  it  had 
originally  observed,  for  the  records  of  that  year  prescribe  that 
the  services  shall  be  according  to  "Minhag  America";  and  in 
1904  the  congregation  formally  adopted  the  ritual  of  the  Union 
Prayer  Book.  At  the  same  time,  however,  the  members  of  the 
society  continued  to  aid,  by  support  both  moral  and  financial, 
their  fellow  religionists  of  recent  emigration,  who  preferred  to 
worship  according  to  the  orthodox  form.  The  latter  became  in 
time  able  to  establish  societies  of  their  own.  The  first  of  these 
was  the  orthodox  congregation  of  Keneseth  Isreal,  incorporated 
in  1894.  Its  earlier  meetings  were  held  at  340  Robbins  Avenue, 
and  in  1906  it  erected  the  present  synagogue  on  the  south  side  of 
Linden  Street.  Another  orthodox  Jewish  society  was  entitled 
Ahavez  Sholam,  incorporated  in  1911  and  worshiping  in  1915  in 


174  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

a  synagogue  on  Dewey  Avenue.  Each  of  these  congregations 
has  purchased  land  for  a  communal  cemetery,  the  latter  in  191i2, 
on  Churchill  Street,  and  the  former  in  1898,  at  the  northeastern 
border  of  the  property  of  the  Pittsfield  Cemetery  Corporation. 
In  1871,  a  plot  of  land  was  purchased  from  that  corporation  by 
the  Society  Ansha  Amonim  for  a  Jewish  burying  ground. 

The  beautiful  grounds  of  the  Pittsfield  Cemetery  Corporation 
were  adorned  in  1900  by  the  erection  thereon  of  a  mortuary 
chapel,  presented  by  Mrs.  Edwin  Clapp  in  memory  of  her  hus- 
band and  dedicated  on  October  seventeenth,  1900.  A  bequest 
to  the  corporation  from  Thomas  Allen  provided  for  a  stone  gate- 
way on  Wahconah  Street,  which  was  built  in  1884  and  of  which 
the  cost,  including  that  of  the  bronze  gates  given  by  Mrs.  Allen, 
was  $7,000.  The  Roman  Catholic  cemetery  on  Peck's  Road  has 
been  graced  by  artistic  improvement;  and  in  1903  it  was  broad- 
ened by  the  addition  of  a  tract  of  land  of  seventy-five  acres,  ad- 
joining it  on  the  northwest  and  purchased  by  Rev.  James  Boyle. 


CHAPTER  XII 
THE  BERKSHIRE  ATHENAEUM  AND  MUSEUM 

AT  the  dedication  of  the  edifice  of  the  Berkshire  Athenaeum, 
on  September  twenty-third,  1876,  Thomas  Allen,  in  the 
course  of  his  address  as  donor  of  the  building,  spoke  these 
words : 

"The  good  fortune  of  being  born  in  Pittsfield  and  of  being 
stimulated  to  exertion  by  early  poverty  gave  me  the  opportunity 
of  realizing  two  wishes.  One  was  to  possess  and  build  upon  the 
home  here  occupied  by  my  father  and  grandfather  since  1765, 
and  the  other  was  to  aid  in  making  memorable  the  town  by  doing 
something  useful  for  it.  I  am  not  sure  but  that  a  cherished  belief 
that  this  country  is  to  be  saved,  if  at  all,  by  the  cultivation  of 
patriotism  and  the  diffusion  of  intelligence  entered  into  the  rno- 
tive.  At  all  events,  I  am  thankful  that  I  have  been  blessed  with 
the  means  and  opportunity  of  accomplishing  the  two  wishes  I 

have    mentioned Having    performed     what    I 

deemed  my  part,  I  shall  rest  in  full  faith  that  the  town  will  per- 
form its  part  of  the  contract,  that  the  institution  will  be  liberally 
and  perpetually  sustained,  and  that  its  beneficial  influence, 
commencing  now,  will  be  continued  so  long  as  the  town  stands". 

Pittsfield's  part  of  the  contract,  to  which  Mr.  Allen  referred, 
was  embodied  in  a  vote  passed  by  the  town  meeting,  in  1874, 
whereby  the  town  agreed  to  pay  to  the  trustees  of  the  Athe- 
naeum, upon  the  erection  of  the  new  building,  the  sum  of  two 
thousand  dollars  annually,  "until  such  time  as  said  trustees  shall 
receive  the  bequest  of  the  late  Phineas  Allen,  Esq.,  or  such  por- 
tion thereof  as  shall  enable  them  to  realize  from  the  increase 
thereof,  the  said  sum  of  two  thousand  dollars  yearly".  That 
the  town  was  disposed  to  regard  this  compact  without  narrowness 
was  soon  shown,  for  the  town  meeting  of  1877  appropriated  three, 
instead  of  two,  thousand  dollars  for  the  maintenance  of  the  li- 
brary and  museum. 

The  institution  in  its  new  home  was  opened  for  public  use  on 


176  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

October  second,  1876.  The  librarian  and  curator  was  Edgar  G. 
Hubbell.  There  were  about  8,000  books  in  the  library;  the 
reading  room  was  supplied  with  one  daily  newspaper,  and  ten 
weekly  and  six  monthly  periodicals.  From  1873  to  1879  no 
purchase  of  new  books  was  possible.  The  town  meeting  of  1879, 
however,  voted  an  extra  appropriation  for  the  specific  purpose 
of  buying  books,  and  beginning  in  1877  a  fund  was  annually 
raised  by  private  subscription  to  procure  newspapers  and  periodi- 
cals for  the  reading  room.  In  June,  1879,  the  librarian  reported 
that  the  number  of  volumes  on  the  shelves  was  9,248,  that  3,211 
persons  held  cards  entitling  them  to  the  use  of  the  library,  and 
that  there  had  been  25,008  books  lent  during  the  preceding 
twelve  months. 

In  the  meantime,  the  Athenaeum  was  beginning  to  serve  the 
community  in  other  directions.  Conditions  were  made,  in  1878, 
with  the  Berkshire  Historical  and  Scientific  Association,  under 
which  the  association  established  its  headquarters  on  the  second 
floor  of  the  Athenaeum  building;  and  there,  in  the  west  room,  a 
collection  of  objects  of  scientific  and  antiquarian  interest  soon 
grew  to  a  considerable  size.  The  east  room  on  the  same  floor 
was  equipped  as  a  lecture  hall  and  became  the  home  of  several 
literary  societies,  notably  of  the  Wednesday  Morning  Club  of 
women,  formed  in  1879.  In  the  central  room  a  gallery  of  art 
gradually  manifested  itself.  This  was  stimulated  during  the 
summer  of  1880  by  the  temporary  establishment  of  a  Loan  Art 
Exhibition.  The  exhibition  remained  open  several  weeks;  in 
the  evenings  it  was  occasionally  enlivened  by  concerts  of  music; 
and  it  proved  to  be  a  potent  attraction  to  many  visitors.  The 
variety  and  quality  of  the  display,  lent  from  Berkshire  homes, 
were  surprising.  The  paintings,  for  example,  included  a  Rem- 
brandt, an  Albert  Durer,  a  Salvator  Rosa,  and  a  Murillo.  The 
assembled  collections,  in  particular,  of  laces  and  of  Chinese 
jewelry  were  pronounced  to  be  unique.  The  educational,  as 
well  as  the  esthetic,  value  of  the  exhibition  was  unusual;  and 
it  revealed  to  the  community  the  possibilities  of  the  Athenaeum 
as  a  focal  point  of  the  county's  artistic  and  historical  interests. 

Mr.  Hubbell,  the  librarian,  was  an  assiduous  gatherer  of  local 
pamphlets  and  memorabilia,  and  this  department  of  the  library 


THE  BERKSHIRE  ATHENAEUM  AND  MUSEUM  177 

was  well  supplied,  while  the  collection  of  governmental  documents, 
diligently  nurtured  by  Henry  L.  Dawes,  was  of  exceptional 
completeness.  But  the  number  of  books  adapted  to  general  cir- 
culation, especially  among  boys  and  girls,  was  not  adequate  to  the 
growing  use  of  the  library  by  the  public,  and  the  system  of  cata- 
loguing demanded  expensive  revision.  In  1883  the  trustees  re- 
solved to  take  bold  action.  They  determined  to  make  the  Phin- 
eas  Allen  estate  immediately  available,  to  anticipate  its  future 
payment  to  the  Athenaeum,  and  to  borrow  on  that  anticipation 
a  sum  sufficient  to  rearrange  the  library,  to  catalogue  it  suitably, 
and  to  buy  new  books.  Moreover,  they  had  in  their  hands  a 
fund  for  the  purchase  of  books,  bequeathed  by  Mrs.  Thaddeus 
Clapp,  who,  during  her  lifetime,  had  been  a  liberal  giver  to  the 
institution.  Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  that  the  town  was  cus- 
tomarily ready  to  increase  somewhat  the  regular  annual  appro- 
priation to  which  it  deemed  itself  bound. 

In  accordance  with  this  decision  of  the  trustees,  the  circulat- 
ing department  of  the  library  was,  in  1883,  practically  renewed. 
4,249  volumes  were  added;  the  entire  library  was  newly  cata- 
logued and  arranged.  Having  been  closed  for  eleven  weeks,  the 
library  was  reopened  December  fifteenth,  1883.  That  the  steps 
taken  were  of  public  benefit  soon  seemed  to  be  evident,  for  in  the 
following  June  a  greatly  increased  circulation  of  books  was  re- 
ported. 

In  November,  1888,  Mr.  Hubbell  resigned  the  position  of  li- 
brarian and  curator,  and  he  was  immediately  followed  by  Harlan 
H.  Ballard.  The  new  librarian's  first  annual  report,  made  in 
June,  1889,  showed  that  there  were  in  the  library  15,890  books, 
of  which  3,303  were  volumes  of  public  documents.  For  several 
succeeding  years  a  gain  was  maintained  in  the  total  number  of 
books,  so  that  it  reached  20,000  in  1893.  At  the  same  time, 
further  numerical  growth  appeared  to  be  impossible  under  the 
existing  limitations  of  space  in  the  Athenaeum  building.  The 
trustees  of  the  institution,  however,  were  convinced  that  the 
legitimate  demand  upon  the  library  by  the  public,  and  especially 
by  the  children  of  the  public  schools,  was  rapidly  increasing, 
and  was  likely  to  increase  still  more  rapidly  in  the  near  future; 
and  they  conceived  that  the  obligation  of  their  trust  compelled 


178  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

them  to  spare  no  effort  to  provide  at  once  for  the  substantial  en- 
largement of  the  building  presented  in  1876  by  Thomas  Allen, 

The  Phineas  Allen  estate  had  become  disencumbered  of  an- 
nuities, and  had  been  paid  to  the  Athenaeum  in  1891.  The 
property  which  thus  passed  into  the  possession  of  the  institution 
was  valued  at  about  $70,000,  To  expend  a  considerable  part  of 
it  for  the  purchase  of  land  and  for  the  erection  of  an  addition  to 
the  building  for  library  purposes  was,  of  course,  to  deprive  the 
Athenaeum  of  much  income,  and  to  make  it  almost  completely 
dependent  for  maintenance  and  growth  upon  the  annual  grant 
from  the  city,  and  upon  the  beneficence  of  private  donors.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  trustees  were  apparently  unable  to  believe 
that  they  could  reasonably  expect  hearty  municipal  or  private 
interest  for  an  institution  whose  facilities  were  so  cramped  and 
inadequate  for  public  needs  that  it  could  neither  fully  prove  its 
present  usefulness  nor  convincingly  indicate  what  it  might  do  in 
the  future.  More  library  space  seemed  to  be  absolutely  essen- 
tial, and  the  need  of  it  was  accentuated,  if  possible,  by  a  bequest 
of  books  by  Miss  Elizabeth  Stuart  Newton  in  1892,  and  in  1895 
by  the  donation  of  2,000  volumes  from  the  library  of  Dr.  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes,  presented  by  his  son,  Mr.  Justice  Holmes,  of  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court.  The  latter  donation,  indeed, 
could  not  even  be  unpacked  and  placed  on  the  shelves. 

Attempts  to  purchase  land  in  the  rear  of  the  building  were 
initiated  in  1893.  These  having  decisively  failed,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  trustees,  they  petitioned  the  legislature  for  the  right  to  take 
one-quarter  of  an  acre  of  land  upon  the  payment  of  an  adjudi- 
cated price  therefor,  under  the  law  of  eminent  domain.  The 
course  taken  by  the  trustees  did  not  escape  vigorous  and  well- 
intentioned  censure  from  many  citizens,  but  nevertheless  the 
petition  was  granted  in  1895. 

Upon  the  land  thus  acquired,  a  large  extension  of  the  main 
building  toward  the  south  was  erected  and  equipped  at  a  cost  of 
about  $50,000,  and  was  ready  for  occupancy  in  the  spring  of  1897. 
The  general  design  of  the  addition  was  devised  by  the  librarian, 
Mr.  Ballard,  and  elaborated  and  made  technically  complete  by 
the  architects,  Messrs.  Hartwell,  Richardson  and  Driver  of 
Boston.     The  execution  of  these  plans  allowed  to  the  circulating 


THE  BERKSHIRE  ATHENAEUM  AND  MUSEUM  179 

library  a  floor  space  of  nearly  4,500  square  feet  whereon  it  was 
estimated  that  about  70,000  books  could  be  conveniently  arrang- 
ed. The  addition  placed  the  growth  of  the  library  beyond  the 
possibility  of  merely  physical  restraint  for  many  years.  The 
community  had  at  its  service,  and  free  of  cost  to  itself,  a  library 
building  ample  for  a  long  future  period.  But  the  financial  en- 
dowment of  the  institution  had  been  greatly  reduced.  A  con- 
temporary report  of  the  president  of  the  corporation  put  the  case 
in  this  way:  "The  Athenaeum  has  been  fostered  and  made  a 
most  prominent  and  useful  educational  institution  largely  by 
private  generosity,  of  the  benefits  of  which  the  citizens  of  Pitts- 
field  have  the  unstinted  use,  and  now  the  city  may  wisely  adopt 
and  recognize  it  as  part  of  its  educational  system  and  as  a  ward 
of  the  municipality,  deserving  its  hearty  and  ungrudging  support 
and  care". 

The  city  was  then  without  oflBcial  representation  in  the  cor- 
porate management.  In  1897,  the  trustees  voluntarily  altered 
the  organization  of  their  board  and  obtained  from  the  legislature 
an  amendment  of  their  charter,  by  which  the  successive  mayors, 
the  chairmen  of  the  school  committees,  and  the  city  treasurers 
become  trustees  of  the  Athenaeum  during  the  tenures  of  their 
municipal  offices.  It  was  believed  that  by  virtue  of  this  measure 
the  city  might  require,  through  its  treasurer,  the  rendering  of 
whatever  account  it  demanded  of  the  funds  it  might  appropriate 
for  the  support  of  the  Athenaeum,  that  it  might  recommend, 
through  the  chairman  of  its  school  committee,  the  extent  to 
which  the  institution  should  co-operate  with  the  public  schools, 
and  finally  that  it  would  be  safeguarded  by  the  mayor's  intimate 
knowledge,  gained  as  a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees,  of  the 
use  made  of  its  appropriations.  Under  this  closer  relationship 
between  the  Athenaeum  and  the  city  government,  the  annual 
municipal  appropriations  increased.  In  1898,  the  appropriation 
was  $5,000;   it  was  $10,000  in  1915. 

By  the  enlargement  of  the  building,  the  efficiency  of  the  li- 
brary was  soundly  stimulated.  A  new  and  elaborate  catalogue, 
on  the  so-called  card  system,  was  begun  at  once  and  within  a  few 
years  was  carried  to  completion  by  the  regular  library  staff.  In 
1899  the  number  of  volumes  in  all  departments  was  34,000,  the 


180  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

circulation  of  books  exceeded  80,000,  and  a  librarians'  training 
class  was  opened  with  six  pupils,  who  in  return  for  instruction 
gave  the  library  their  services  for  one  year.  A  branch  circulating 
library  was  established  near  the  Russell  factory  village,  and  in 
1902  the  total  circulation  first  touched  100,000.  In  widening 
the  public  use  of  the  library,  and  especially  of  the  reference  de- 
partment, much  was  accomplished  by  enlisting  the  co-operation 
of  teachers.  The  working  staff  increased  so  that  in  1915,  still 
under  the  leadership  of  Harlan  H.  Ballard,  it  numbered  twelve, 
organized  in  five  working  departments.  There  were  then  64,000 
books  in  the  library,  and  the  circulation  was  104,000. 

This  growth  was  unassisted  by  any  substantial  addition  to 
the  relatively  small  permanent  endowment  of  the  institution. 
Legacies  from  Henry  W.  Taft,  Dwight  M.  Collins,  and  F.  A. 
Hand  were  of  necessity  devoted  mostly  to  the  payment  of  current 
expenses  and  the  cost  of  structural  repairs.  Other  private 
donors  contributed  money  from  time  to  time  to  provide  for 
special  needs  or  for  the  purchase  of  books  of  a  particular  sort. 
Such  were,  for  example,  the  Berkshire  Ministers'  Club,  the 
American  Institute  of  Electrical  Engineers,  and  the  givers  of  the 
equipment  of  a  children's  room.  But  it  is  to  be  said  that  in 
general  the  growth  in  usefulness  and  size  of  the  library  of  the 
Athenaeum,  from  1897  to  1916,  was  maintained  by  relying 
rather  upon  internal  economy  than  upon  extraneous  aid. 

While  the  enlargement  of  the  building  in  1897  appeared  to 
guarantee  suitable  accommodation  for  a  public  library  com- 
mensurate with  the  city's  probable  desires  for  many  years,  no 
relief  was  aflForded  thereby  for  the  further  development  of  the 
collections  of  natural  history  and  art.  The  single  room  which 
could  be  devoted  to  the  Athenaeum's  art  gallery  had  been  filled 
in  1886  by  a  collection  of  casts  of  antique  statuary,  selected  in 
Europe  by  Rev.  C.  V.  Spear;  and  therein  also  had  been  placed 
the  valuable  statue  of  "Rebekah"  by  Benzoni,  a  generous  gift 
by  Mrs.  Edwin  Clapp.  A  bequest  of  money  to  the  institution 
by  Bradford  Allen,  of  which  the  expenditure  was  restricted  to 
works  of  art,  became  available  in  1887,  and  by  means  of  it 
paintings  were  added  to  the  gallery;  and  under  the  will  of  Miss 
Elizabeth    Stuart   Newton    the   Athenaeum    acquired  excellent 


THE  BERKSHIRE  ATHENAEUM  AND  MUSEUM  181 

pictures,  which  had  been  obtained  abroad  by  Miss  Newton's 
father  in  1845.  But  during  the  final  years  of  the  last  century 
the  art  gallery,  of  which  the  enrichment  had  long  been  at  a 
standstill,  attracted  only  the  desultory  visitor.  The  museum, 
although  in  better  case,  so  suffered  from  lack  of  room  that  con- 
venient arrangement  of  its  exhibits  was  prohibited.  In  1898 
Daniel  Clark  of  Tyringham  contributed  several  extraordinary 
collections  of  minerals,  coins,  and  Indian  and  antiquarian  relics, 
which  were  displayed  on  the  library  floor  of  the  Athenaeum  and 
not  properly  in  the  museum  at  all. 

In  short,  the  trustees  had  been  compelled  to  energize  one 
function  of  the  institution  and  to  allow  others  to  become  attenuat- 
ed. The  officers  had  felt  themselves  obliged  to  choose  the  de- 
partment of  the  Athenaeum  which  it  was  most  important  ade- 
quately to  maintain;  and  they  had  chosen  its  free  library.  The 
intent  of  the  founders  and  early  benefactors  was  far  broader, 
but  it  was  in  apparently  unavoidable  peril  of  defeat.  And  pre- 
cisely at  this  juncture  the  skies  were  brightened. 

It  was  in  April,  1902,  that  the  following  letter  was  made 
public,  addressed  jointly  to  William  R.  Plunkett  and  Walter  F. 
Hawkins. 

"I  am  prepared  to  carry  out  the  purpose  I  have  mentioned 
in  my  several  interviews  with  you  of  erecting  a  building  to  be 
used  as  a  Museum  of  Natural  History  and  Art,  and  of  furnishing 
the  same,  in  part,  with  suitable  objects  of  artistic  and  scientific 
interest,  to  which  additions  may  be  made  from  time  to  time  by 
other  friends  of  Berkshire  County. 

"I  intend  to  establish  the  Museum  in  Pittsfield  as  the  most 
central  and  convenient  accessible  point  for  the  inhabitants  of 
the  county  in  general,  and  to  proceed  with  the  building  as  soon 
as  I  have  procured  a  suitable  site. 

"On  or  before  the  completion  of  the  Museum,  I  propose  to 
convey  it  to  a  corporation  or  board  of  trustees,  and  shall  be  glad 
if  you  will  undertake  the  organization  of  such  a  corporation. 
"Yours  very  truly, 

"Zenas  Crane." 

The  site  selected  by  Mr.  Crane  was  on  the  east  side  of  South 
Street,  near  Park  Square,  and  the  building,  which  he  caused  to  be 
erected  there  in  1902,  was  of  two  stories  and  in  size  seventy-four 
by  forty  feet.     The  materials  were  Roman  brick  and  Indiana 


182  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

limestone,  and  the  style  was  an  adaptation  of  that  of  the  Italian 
renaissance.  The  architects  were  Messrs.  Harding  and  Seaver 
of  Pittsfield.  The  building  contained  six  exhibition  rooms,  and 
it  was  first  opened  to  the  public  on  April  first,  1903. 

In  the  meantime,  Mr.  Crane,  always  having  in  mind  the 
people  of  Berkshire  County  as  the  beneficiaries  for  whose  profit 
and  enjoyment  the  new  Museum  was  to  be  established,  had  com- 
municated to  the  trustees  of  the  Athenaeum  his  opinion  that  the 
two  institutions  should  be  under  a  single  management.  Their 
purposes  were  similar;  their  real  estate  was  contiguous.  Mr. 
Ballard,  the  librarian  and  curator  of  the  Athenaeum,  was  well- 
equipped  by  experience  to  act  as  the  curator  of  the  Museum, 
and  was  willing  so  to  act  without  further  compensation.  The 
trustees  of  the  Athenaeum  accordingly  moved  with  grateful 
promptness.  Upon  their  application,  early  in  1903,  the  legisla- 
ture enacted  amendments  to  their  charter,  whereby  the  corporate 
name  was  altered  to  "The  Trustees  of  the  Berkshire  Athenaeum 
and  Museum  of  Natural  History  and  Art",  and  whereby  the 
corporation  was  authorized  to  elect  nine  additional  trustees,  and 
from  time  to  time  thereafter  to  reduce  the  whole  number  of 
trustees  to  not  less  than  ten,  in  addition  to  those  holding  office 
as  representatives  of  the  municipal  government.  To  the  officers 
of  the  corporation  thus  altered,  Mr.  Crane,  on  March  thirty-first, 
1903,  quietly  handed  his  deed,  conveying  the  new  Museum  and 
the  land  on  which  it  was  situated  to  the  trustees.  "This  mag- 
nificent gift,"  it  was  by  them  voted,  "the  trustees  and  their  suc- 
cessors will  hold  in  their  fiduciary  capacity  for  the  use  and  benefit 
of  the  public,  'to  aid',  in  the  language  of  the  charter  of  the  cor- 
poration of  which  they  are  the  legal  representatives,  'in  promoting 
education,  culture,  and  refinement.'  " 

The  artistic  rarities  and  the  exhibits  having  to  do  with 
natural  history,  which  were  originally  placed  in  the  Museum  in 
1903,  were  most  of  them  provided  by  the  donor  of  the  building, 
although  there  were  generous  contributions  from  other  sources. 
Visitors  were  impressed  not  only  by  the  high  merit  of  the  indi- 
vidual objects  displayed,  but  also  by  the  breadth  and  wisdom 
of  their  selection.  To  the  thoughtful,  this  may  have  betokened 
the  carefully  laid  scheme  of  one  man,  whose  plans  had  a  wider 


THE  BERKSHIRE  ATHENAEUM  AND  MUSEUM  183 

scope  than  was  yet  completely  revealed.  Few,  nevertheless,  fore- 
saw the  great  significance  of  Zenas  Crane's  continuing  and  artis- 
tic interest  in  the  institution  which  he  had  given  to  the  thankful 
people  of  Berkshire  County. 

In  September,  1904,  the  trustees  of  the  Athenaeum  and  Mu- 
seum informed  the  public  that  Mr.  Crane  was  ready  to  erect  and 
equip  an  addition  to  the  south  of  the  South  Street  building. 
This  was  finished  in  the  following  year.  At  the  same  time  the 
announcement  was  published,  by  the  trustees,  of  Mr.  Crane's 
willingness  to  provide  for  the  future  maintenance  of  the  Museum. 
In  1909  he  built  and  furnished  a  wing  to  the  north  of  the  original 
edifice,  and  in  1915  he  completed  the  quadrilateral  by  the  erection 
of  a  large  addition  connecting  the  two  wings.  No  intimation 
was  made  at  any  time  by  the  donor  as  to  the  cost  either  of  the 
land  utilized,  or  of  the  main  building  and  the  various  additions, 
or  of  their  contents. 

It  was  apprehended,  however,  that  the  mission  successfully 
accomplished  in  the  community  by  the  Museum  could  not  have 
been  initiated  and  carried  on  solely  by  the  expenditure  of  money. 
As  the  institution  expanded,  it  clearly  seemed  to  be  enjoying  al- 
most daily  the  benefit  of  its  founder's  attentive  thought;  nor  is 
it  too  fanciful  to  say  that  the  Museum  early  developed  a  personal 
quality,  of  which  its  enlargements  did  not  altogether  deprive  it. 
Soon  the  Athenaeum's  collections  of  art,  of  science,  and  of  local 
history  were  transferred  to  the  Museum,  which  began  to  be  the 
recipient  of  many  interesting  and  valuable  gifts  from  its  friends 
throughout  the  county.  But  nevertheless  it  remained  essentially 
the  expression  of  the  taste  and  artistic  aspiration,  as  it  was  of  the 
munificence,  of  the  one  man  who  founded  it,  supported  it,  and 
unostentatiously  and  constantly  enriched  its  collections.  Reso- 
lutions of  the  trustees,  voted  at  their  annual  meeting  on  June 
sixteenth,  1915,  read  as  follows: 

"Whereas  Mr.  Zenas  Crane  is  now  making  a  large  addition  to 
the  Art  Museum,  which,  when  finished,  will  complete  the  quad- 
rilateral of  the  building,  and  give  a  floor  space,  exclusive  of  the 
basement,  of  about  25,000  square  feet;  and  has  given  this  build- 
ing, with  all  its  fittings,  and  the  land  upon  which  it  stands  and  its 
appurtenances  to  us,  as  Trustees  of  the  Berkshire  Athenaeum 
and  Museum,  to  be  held  by  us  and  our  successors  in  trust  for  the 


184  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

use  and  benefit  of  this  and  future  generations  free  of  charge 
and  subject  only  to  such  reasonable  rules  and  regulations  as 
shall  from  time  to  time  be  made  by  us  and  by  our  successors; 
and 

"Whereas,  Mr.  Crane  has  placed  in  the  building  and  also 
given  upon  the  same  trusts  a  priceless  collection  of  works  of  art, 
and  science,  and  nature,  for  the  cultivation,  education,  and  de- 
light of  the  people,  to  which  collection  additions  are  constantly 
being  made  by  him;  and 

"Whereas,  for  the  last  fifteen  years  Mr.  Crane  has  given 
much  time  and  thought,  with  the  work  of  expert  assistants,  to 
the  creating  and  development  of  this  museum,  making  of  it  an 
institution  which  evokes  the  increasing  interest  of  the  Trustees 
and  its  numerous  visitors;   therefore  be  it 

"Resolved,  that  we  do  hereby  assure  to  Mr.  Zenas  Crane  our 
gratitude,  and  the  gratitude  of  the  people  for  whose  use  we  ac- 
cept this  gift,  the  cost  of  which  he  has  never  disclosed;  and  our 
appreciation  of  the  long  and  devoted  service  he  has  given  to  the 
public  welfare,  as  well  as  of  the  good  taste  and  refinement  shown 
in  the  building,  the  works  of  art,  and  the  other  exhibits;  and 
the  Trustees  also  appreciate  the  consideration  shown  for  the 
comfort  of  visitors  to  the  museum,  and  the  entire  freedom  from 
care  for  the  cost,  maintenance,  and  management  which  has  been 
assured  to  the  Trustees;  and  the  modesty  of  the  giver  who,  doing 
his  perfect  work,  presents  his  gift  and  keeps  himself  unseen,  is 
by  the  Trustees  fully  realized  and  appreciated". 

The  Museum,  in  1915,  contained  on  its  ground  floor  five 
spacious  exhibition  rooms  devoted  to  natural  history,  in  which 
were  shown  collections  of  minerals,  of  botanical  reproductions,  of 
insects  and  shells,  of  mounted  animals  and  birds,  and  in  a  sixth 
room  was  displayed  a  collection  illustrative  of  American  Indian 
life.  On  the  second  floor  was  a  hall  of  statuary,  three  rooms 
wherein  were  collections  of  oriental  art,  of  antiquities,  and  of 
Americana,  and  four  rooms  of  paintings,  which  included  the 
best  types  of  modern  art  as  well  as  many  classical  masterpieces, 
of  great  beauty  and  of  extraordinary  value,  for  among  them 
were  originals  by  Van  Dyck,  Rubens,  Murillo,  Sir  Thomas 
Lawrence,  Daubigny,  Millais,  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  and 
Bouguereau.  In  a  basement  room  was  assembled  a  large  collec- 
tion of  local  antiquarian  interest.  Elsewhere  in  the  building 
were  to  be  seen  an  admirable  exhibit  of  coins  and  medals,  pre- 
sented to  the  Museum  by  Mrs.  Richard  Lathers,  and  a  number 


THE  BERKSHIRE  ATHENAEUM  AND  MUSEUM  185 

of  objects  of  rare  historical  interest,  such  as  one  of  the  original 
Wright  aeroplanes,  and  part  of  the  sledging  outfit  which  went 
to  the  North  Pole  with  the  Peary  expedition. 

The  removal  to  the  South  Street  building  of  the  contents  of 
the  Athenaeum's  art  gallery  and  museum  permitted  the  dedica- 
tion to  library  purposes  of  the  second  floor  of  the  original  edifice 
of  the  Athenaeum,  which  was  practically  accomplished  about 
1912. 

The  presidents  of  the  institution,  with  the  dates  of  their  first 
election  to  ofiice,  have  been  Thomas  Allen,  1872,  William  R. 
Plunkett,  1882,  W.  Russell  Allen,  1904,  James  M.  Barker,  1905, 
Walter  F.  Hawkins,  1906,  Dr.  J.  F.  A.  Adams,  1908,  and  Dr. 
Henry  Colt,  1914.  The  vice-presidents  have  been  Gen.  William 
F.  Bartlett,  1872,  WilHam  R.  Plunkett,  1876,  W.  Russell  Allen, 
1882,  James  M.  Barker,  1904,  Walter  F.  Hawkins,  1905,  Dr. 
Henry  Colt,  1906,  and  William  H.  Swift,  1914.  James  M. 
Barker,  Edward  S.  Francis,  William  R.  Plunkett,  Erwin  H. 
Kennedy  and  George  H.  Tucker  successively  served  as  treasurer 
while  the  clerks  of  the  corporation  have  been  James  M.  Barker, 
Henry  W.  Taft,  George  Y.  Learned,  and  Harlan  H.  Ballard. 

Thomas  Allen  died  at  Washington,  D.  C,  April  eighth,  1882. 
At  the  time  of  his  death  he  was  a  congressman,  representing 
Missouri  in  the  House.  A  vivid  sketch  of  Mr.  Allen's  remarkable 
career  is  to  be  found  in  the  second  volume  of  Smith's  "History  of 
Pittsfield".  The  later  years  of  his  life  were  conspicuous  for 
honorable  public  achievement  in  the  national  capital  and  in  St. 
Louis,  the  city  of  his  adoption.  His  summer  residence  was  at 
Pittsfield,  the  town  which  he  loved,  where  he  had  built  his 
graceful,  elm-shaded  mansion  on  the  site  of  his  famous  grand- 
father's parsonage.  To  Mr.  Allen  the  Athenaeum  owes  its  ex- 
istence. "In  all  his  active,  busy  life,"  it  was  written  of  him, 
after  his  death,  "conducting  great  enterprises  and  involved  in 
hazardous  business  undertakings,  he  never  forgot  nor  laid  aside 
his  love  for  literature,  culture,  and  art."  Nor,  it  may  be  added, 
did  he  ever  lay  aside  his  affection  for  the  home  of  his  forefathers. 
His  grave,  marked  by  a  stately  obelisk,  is  in  the  Pittsfield  ceme- 
tery. Nobody  can  rightly  estimate,  even  now,  the  benefits 
which  Mr.  Allen's  generosity  conferred  upon  his  birthplace. 


186  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Though  to  Thomas  Allen  is  due  the  existence  of  the  Athe- 
naeum, its  development  is  to  be  ascribed  in  greater  measure  to 
William  R.  Plunkett  than  to  any  other  of  its  officers.  Oppor- 
tunities of  service  to  Pittsfield  were  allotted  to  no  man  of  his 
generation  in  so  great  a  profusion  as  they  were  to  Mr.  Plunkett, 
who  was  born  in  North  Chester,  Massachusetts,  April  twenty- 
third,  1831.  His  father,  Thomas  F.  Plunkett,  became  a  resident 
of  Pittsfield  in  1836.  William  R.  Plunkett  was  educated  at  An- 
dover,  at  Yale  College,  and  at  the  Harvard  Law  School;  and 
he  commenced  the  practice  of  law  in  Pittsfield  in  1855,  having 
in  that  year  been  admitted  to  the  Berkshire  bar.  He  was  mar- 
ried twice,  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Campbell  Kellogg,  daughter  of 
Ensign  H.  Kellogg,  and  to  her  sister,  Miss  May  Kellogg.  He 
died  December  seventh,  1903. 

Soon  after  Mr.  Plunkett's  admission  to  the  bar,  his  profes- 
sional duties  began  to  be  not  so  often  those  of  an  advocate  in  the 
courts  as  those  of  an  adviser,  and  not  always  of  an  adviser  in 
matters  solely  legal,  to  financial  and  industrial  enterprise, 
whether  corporate  or  individual.  The  number  was  extraordi- 
narily large  of  local  business  corporations  with  which  he  came 
to  be  thus  connected.  A  few  conspicuous  instances  will  here 
sufiice.  At  the  time  of  his  death,  he  was  and  had  been  for 
twenty-five  years  president  of  the  Berkshire  Life  Insurance 
Company,  president  for  eleven  years  of  the  Pontoosuc  Woolen 
Manufacturing  Company,  a  director  for  thirty  years,  and  vice- 
president  for  five,  of  the  Agricultural  National  Bank,  and  treasur- 
er and  practically  manager  for  forty-seven  years  of  the  Pittsfield 
Coal  Gas  Company;  he  participated  importantly  in  the  guidance* 
from  their  beginnings,  of  the  affairs  of  the  Pittsfield  Electric 
Company  and  of  the  Pittsfield  Electric  Street  Railway  Company; 
and  his  efforts  were  a  factor  of  extreme  and  essential  value  in  es- 
tablishing the  city's  most  vital  industry,  that  is  to  say,  the  manu- 
facture of  electrical  apparatus,  through  the  organization  and 
maintenance  of  the  Stanley  Electric  Manufacturing  Company. 

As  a  public  servant,  he  was  prominent  for  more  than  twenty- 
five  years  in  the  management  of  the  Ashley  waterworks.  Under 
the  town  and  fire  district  governments,  his  service  on  committees 
was  perennial;    the  improvement  of  the  Park  for  the  reception 


THE  BERKSHIRE  ATHENAEUM  AND  MUSEUM  187 

of  the  Soldiers'  Monument  in  1872  was  a  notable  municipal  work 
forwarded  by  his  endeavors.  He  represented  the  town  in  the 
General  Court,  and  for  four  successive  years,  beginning  in  1876, 
he  was  nominated  by  the  Democrats  of  the  Commonwealth  for 
the  office  of  lieutenant  governor. 

Of  the  spirit  which  animated  Mr.  Plunkett's  civic  and  pro- 
fessional career,  no  more  accurate  estimate  can  be  offered  to  the 
reader  than  that  published  in  the  Springfield  Republican  after 
his  death : 

"The  better,  the  larger,  the  more  prosperous  and  beautiful 
Pittsfield  he  labored  for  with  increasing  diligence  and  large  per- 
suasiveness. In  things  written  and  said  about  Mr.  Plunkett 
there  is  a  note  of  wonderment,  too  closely  akin  to  apology,  that 
he  did  not  seek  some  larger  field  for  his  activities.     There  is  no 

true  perspective  in  that This  man  grew  in 

congenial  soil  and  spread  his  roots,  was  open  to  the  sun  and  rain 
for  nourishment  and  not  for  rust  upon  his  finer  powers — an  elm 
for  beauty  and  outstretching  shade.  Not  selfish  and  hard,  like 
an  iron  post  on  the  side  of  the  roadway  to  hold  up  great  business 
interests  as  typified  by  the  street  railway  traffic,  was  he — a  mere 
pillar  for  commercialism.  In  the  breadth  of  his  sympathies  he 
was  a  remarkable  citizen.  The  vigorous  youth  of  his  outlook 
never  changed.  The  older  generation  faded  away,  and  his  own 
came  into  its  directing  responsibilities,  yet  he  was  the  adviser 
and  the  friend  of  the  young  men  to  the  last.  There  was  no  more 
reliable  quantity  in  the  city  than  Mr.  Plunkett.  With  a  quiet 
force  that  never  flagged,  he  did  things  and  inspired  the  doing 
of  them.  And  all  was  brightened  by  his  sparkling  humor  and 
geniality  that  was  never  boisterous,  but  ever  infectious.  Men 
leaned  on  him  to  a  degree  that  they  can  only  now  measure,  so 
long  had  he  been  a  fixed  quantity," 

Men  leaned  on  him,  indeed — all  sorts  of  men  in  all  sorts  of 
perplexities.  He  had  a  genius  for  compromise  and  for  making 
smooth  the  rough  places  in  the  pathway  of  men's  lives.  People 
trusted  his  ability  to  see  to  it,  as  the  saying  goes,  that  things 
were  right.  Countless  were  the  burdens,  large  and  small,  of 
others  which  he  helped  to  carry;  and  this  he  did  without  ap- 
parent effort  and  without  ostentation. 

Mr.  Plunkett,  as  a  stalwart  and  mettlesome  youth,  was  an 
officer  of  the  village  fire  department  and  the  village  baseball 
nine.     To  the  end  of  his  days,  the  spectacle  or  the  story  of  an 


188  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

athletic  contest  seldom  failed  to  interest  him,  and  never  so  failed 
if  the  contest  chanced  to  be  one  wherein  the  name  of  Pittsfield 
was  concerned.  His  temperament  was  strongly  companionable; 
and  the  jocose,  familiar,  masculine  intercourse  of  clubs  and  social 
gatherings  was  very  much  to  his  liking.  He  loved  to  play  with 
children,  and  they  with  him.  Not  many  men  had  an  apprecia- 
tion at  once  so  keen  and  so  kindly  for  amusing  character  and 
incident,  while  from  taking  himself  too  seriously  he  seemed  al- 
ways to  be  prevented  by  the  same  philosophical,  Irish  sense  of 
humor.  He  was  a  leading  figure  in  the  affairs  of  the  First  Congrega- 
tional parish,  doing  duty  often  as  one  of  its  financial  officers  and 
for  more  than  twenty-five  years  as  librarian  of  the  church's 
Sunday  school.  Many  of  the  charitable  organizations  of  the 
town  and  city  regularly  came  to  him  for  counsel,  and  this  was 
true  conspicuously  in  the  cases  of  the  House  of  Mercy  and  the 
Bishop  Memorial  Training  School  for  Nurses. 

But  of  the  scores  of  institutions  and  undertakings  which  en- 
gaged Mr.  Plunkett's  active  support,  the  one  to  which  he  was 
most  fondly  devoted  was  the  Berkshire  Athenaeum.  The  im- 
pulse which  resulted  in  its  incorporation  was  guided  by  him,  he 
was  a  member  of  the  original  board  of  trustees,  he  was  in  1882 
chosen  president,  and  in  that  office  he  served  for  twenty-one 
years,  until  the  day  of  his  death.  His  service  was  not  casual  or 
perfunctory.  "We  generally  met",  said  one  of  the  officers, 
"simple  to  record  and  adopt  what  with  infinite  labor  and  pro- 
longed thought  he  had  devised  for  the  Athenaeum — it  was  the 
pride  and  joy  of  his  heart." 

The  controlling  principle  of  this  labor  and  thought  was  that 
the  library  should  be  conducted  not  for  the  benefit  in  chief  of  a 
scholarly  and  cultured  few,  but  for  the  benefit  of  the  average 
man  and  woman  and  their  children.  His  earnest  desire  was  so 
to  develop  the  library  that  the  use  of  its  books  might  become  an 
everyday  part  of  the  everyday  lives  of  all  the  everyday  people 
in  the  city  of  Pittsfield.  With  this  purpose,  he  was  minded  to 
permit  no  obstacle  to  block  its  growth;  and  in  behalf  of  its  in- 
terests, as  he  saw  them,  he  was  never  unready  to  plan,  to  act,  and 
to  contend,  nor  was  he  willing  to  spare  himself.  In  testimony  of 
this,  another  excerpt  from  the  record  book  of  the  corporation 
may  fittingly  close  this  chapter: 


THE  BERKSHIRE  ATHENAEUM  AND  MUSEUM  189 

"There  were  not  wanting,  in  the  years  during  which  Mr. 
Plunkett's  constant  care  and  thought  were  so  given,  instances  in 
which  were  needed  high  courage,  the  utmost  clearness  of  appre- 
ciation and  great  wisdom  in  matters  of  vital  importance.  Among 
them  was  the  erection  of  the  new  library  building,  which  involved 
the  taking  of  additional  land  and  the  necessity  of  relying  for 
current  support  upon  the  inhabitants  of  Pittsfield  in  their  cor- 
porate capacity;  also  the  amalgamation  under  the  present  charter 
of  the  old  Athenaeum  with  the  noble  institution  founded  by  Mr. 
Zenas  Crane.  In  large  matters,  as  well  as  in  those  of  every  day, 
Mr.  Plunkett's  service  has  been  both  constant  and  fine.  It 
brought  the  Athenaeum  through  the  period  of  transition  from 
town  to  city  life,  kept  it  even  with  the  needs  of  the  community, 
and  transmuted  it  from  an  institution  dependent  upon  the  liber- 
ality of  individuals  into  an  agency  of  the  city  to  afford  to  all  its 
people  what  is  best  and  most  effective  in  giving  the  highest 
training  and  the  most  refined  and  uplifting  knowledge." 


CHAPTER  XIII 
YOUNG  PEOPLE'S  ASSOCIATIONS 

IN  the  organized  work  of  helping  the  young  men  and  the 
boys  of  Pittsfield  to  become  worthy  citizens,  the  direct  in- 
fluence of  the  churches  and  the  pubhc  schools  has  been  re- 
inforced through  the  substantial  aid  given  by  friends  to  three 
local  institutions — the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  the 
Father  Mathew  Total  Abstinence  Society,  and  the  Boys'  Club. 
Especially  after  1900,  all  these  developed  marked  usefulness, 
and  for  each  of  them,  between  the  years  1906  and  1913,  a  com- 
modious and  suitable  building  was  erected.  Of  the  three,  the 
total  membership  in  1915  was  about  4,000,  or  one-tenth  of  the 
city's  population.  The  cost  of  the  three  new  buildings  was  ap- 
proximately $290,000. 

Attempts  were  not  infrequent  during  the  last  century  to  es- 
tablish in  the  village  of  Pittsfield  associations  of  young  men  with 
the  serious  purpose  of  moral  and  intellectual  improvement. 
They  took  usually  the  somewhat  forbidding  aspect  of  debating 
clubs.  The  earliest  attempt  of  considerable  service  was  in  1831, 
when  was  organized  the  Young  Men's  Society.  Among  the 
leaders  were  Henry  Colt  and  Theodore  Pomeroy.  The  associa- 
tion collected  a  library  of  300  volumes  and  occupied  a  small  hall 
in  "Dr.  Clough's  new  building"  on  North  Street  near  Park 
Square,  for  which  it  paid  an  annual  rental  of  $50,  and  which  it 
sublet  occasionally  for  "preaching  to  the  Blacks",  according  to 
its  surviving  record  book.  The  members  were  regaled  by  weekly 
lectures  and  debates;  the  expenses  were  defrayed  by  the  pro- 
ceeds of  a  subscription  paper,  circulated  annually  among  the 
townspeople,  by  whom  the  society  was  much  esteemed.  Not  by 
all  the  inhabitants,  however,  for  on  January  thirteenth,  1835, 
it  was  voted  "to  refer  the  subject  of  disturbances  by  Boys  to  the 
Board  of  Directors,"  and  the  next  debate  was  on  the  appropriate 


YOUNG  PEOPLE'S  ASSOCIATIONS  191 

question:  "Are  Knowledge  and  Civilization  conducive  to  Human 
Happiness?"     In  1850  the  society  disbanded. 

A  far  more  ambitious  and  elaborate  organization  was  the 
Young  Men's  Association  which  began  to  flourish  in  1865,  and 
became  extinct  in  1873.  This  society  had  its  home  in  the  Dun- 
ham block  on  North  Street,  where  it  offered  to  its  members  many 
attractions,  ranging  from  billiards  to  a  cabinet  of  scientific  curi- 
osities. The  president,  during  the  greater  part  of  the  existence 
of  the  association,  was  Thomas  Colt,  who  was  accustomed  to 
make  good  the  annual  and  apparently  inevitable  financial  de- 
ficit. When  Mr.  Colt  retired  from  office,  the  deficiency  became 
troublesome,  and  the  organization  soon  collapsed. 

This  experience  discouraged  further  attempts  on  like  lines 
for  several  years,  during  which  no  place  of  general  association 
was  provided  for  the  young  men  of  the  town.  They  had,  of 
course,  numerous  informal  and  literary  clubs,  while  the  various 
churches,  and  notably  St.  Joseph's,  possessed  young  men's  so- 
cieties, of  which  the  function  was  not  solely  religious.  The 
Business  Men's  Association,  founded  in  1881,  began  almost 
immediately  to  be  a  club  rather  than  a  board  of  trade.  Pitts- 
field's  volunteer  fire  companies  maintained  clubrooms  customari- 
ly well-ordered,  and  the  advantages  of  secret  and  fraternal  socie- 
ties were  enjoyed  by  the  favored.  But  nothing  of  this  sort  was 
available  distinctively  for  the  town's  young  men,  as  a  class. 
The  need  was  obvious. 

The  national  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  was  seen 
first  in  Western  Massachusetts  at  Springfield,  where  a  branch  of 
it  was  established  by  employees  of  the  railroad.  The  Pittsfield 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  was  formed  on  April  twenty- 
third,  1885.  The  first  president  was  Alexander  Kennedy. 
In  October,  1885,  headquarters  were  opened  on  the  third  floor  of 
the  block  next  north  of  the  building  of  the  Berkshire  Life  Insur- 
ance Company.  The  rooms  were  cramped,  hard  to  reach,  and 
unattractive;  but  it  was  possible  to  maintain,  in  addition  to  the 
religious  meetings,  some  educational  classes,  a  bureau  of  em- 
ployment, and  a  boarding  house  register,  and  thus  to  fill  a 
space  theretofore  vacant  in  the  town's  life.  The  association  was 
incorporated  in  1886,  and  a  building  fund  was  started  under  the 


192  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

presidency  of  George  Shipton  in  1887,  by  an  unknown  donor  who 
left  ten  dollars  for  that  purpose  on  the  treasurer's  desk;  to  this 
nucleus  a  women's  faithful  auxiliary  society,  organized  with 
thirty-five  members  in  1885,  was  able  to  make  some  contribu- 
tions. 

On  April  twelfth,  1888,  the  Pittsfield  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  with  170 
members,  dedicated  rooms  in  the  Wollison  brick  block  on  North 
Street.  These  consisted  of  a  good  sized  assembly  hall,  a  boys' 
room,  and  an  elementary  gymnasium.  The  association  began 
to  regard  itself  with  satisfaction,  and  to  be  aware  that  the  com- 
munity at  large  was  responsive  to  its  efforts. 

The  membership  so  increased  that  279  names  were  on  the 
list  in  1891.  William  A.  Whittlesey  was  in  that  year  the  presi- 
dent. He  was  a  man  of  contagious  enthusiasm,  and  under  his 
leadership  an  endeavor  was  first  actually  made  to  obtain  for  the 
association  a  home  of  its  own.  In  1890,  a  Thanksgiving  Day 
gift  from  William  H.  Chamberlin,  who  was  a  stanch  friend  of  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.,  had  added  $1,000  to  the  little  building  fund,  and  a 
bequest  from  Mrs.  Almiron  D.  Francis  raised  the  total  amount 
to  more  than  $6,000  in  1892.  In  the  latter  year  a  canvass  of  the 
citizens  produced  funds  sufficient  to  warrant  the  purchase  of  a 
wooden  building  on  the  east  side  of  North  Street,  which  occupied 
the  present  site  of  the  Majestic  Theater,  between  Fenn  Street 
and  the  railroad.  In  order  to  raise  money  for  the  equipment  of 
the  upper  part  of  the  building,  which  the  association  purposed  to 
utilize,  a  pretentious  and  then  novel  entertainment  was  presented 
at  the  Academy  of  Music  in  August,  1893.  This  attracted  the 
public  every  day  for  a  week,  and,  having  nearly  300  participants, 
served  to  arouse  much  general  interest  in  the  association. 

In  1894  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  was  in  settled  possession  of  its  newly 
acquired  property  and  of  most  of  the  facilities,  albeit  on  a  modest 
scale,  which  it  required — assembly  and  recreation  rooms,  class- 
rooms, and  a  small,  but  well-equipped,  gymnasium,  with  lockers 
and  shower  baths.  The  population  of  the  city,  however,  was 
growing  rapidly,  and  growing  in  such  a  way  that  many  of  the  new 
residents  were  young  men  of  the  sort  naturally  attracted  to  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  It  was  not  long  before  the  Pittsfield  association 
again    felt    the    disadvantage    of    inadequate    quarters.     Mr. 


YOUNG  PEOPLE'S  ASSOCIATIONS  193 

Whittlesey  continued  to  be  an  energetic  president  until  1900, 
when  he  was  succeeded  by  William  H.  Chamberlin.  In  1902 
the  work  of  the  association  was  greatly  invigorated  by  the  en- 
gagement, as  general  secretary,  of  Edward  N.  Huntress;  and 
in  1903,  soon  after  Mr.  Chamberlin  had  been  followed  in  the 
presidency  by  Samuel  G.  Colt,  plans  to  provide  for  the  pur- 
chase of  another  site  and  the  erection  of  a  new  building  assumed 
more  or  less  definite  shape. 

By  this  time  the  association  had  enlisted  the  support  of  a 
large  number  of  business  and  professional  men,  among  whom 
was  John  P.  Merrill.  To  him  fell  the  privilege  of  announcing, 
in  the  fall  of  1905,  the  gift  to  the  association  of  seven  acres 
of  land  adjacent  to  Pontoosuc  Lake.  The  donors  were  Miss 
Hannah  Merrill  and  some  of  her  relatives;  and  the  property, 
including  a  grove  of  lordly  pines,  afforded  to  the  association  a 
desirable  summer  camping  ground.  To  this  the  association 
added  by  purchase  a  tract  of  fourteen  acres  bordered  by  the  lake; 
and  in  1914  James  D.  Shipton  gave  to  the  association  a  tract  of 
forty -five  acres  to  the  east  of  its  holdings. 

The  selection  for  the  site  of  a  new  building  was  made  public 
in  the  summer  of  1906.  The  land  chosen  was  on  the  south  corner 
of  North  and  Melville  Streets,  the  frontage  on  North  Street  being 
about  one  hundred  feet.  Part  of  it,  where  stood  the  Number 
Three  fire  engine  house,  was  purchased  from  the  city,  and  the 
price  paid  for  the  entire  plot  by  the  association  was  $50,000. 
A  pubUc  campaign  to  raise  money  wherewith  to  increase  the 
building  fund  was  organized  in  December  of  1908,  and  was  the 
most  systematic,  thorough,  and  spirited  which  Pittsfield  had 
witnessed  up  to  that  time  in  behalf  of  any  philanthropic  object. 
The  collectors,  arrayed  in  competitive  squads,  met  daily  to  hear 
inspiring  speeches,  and  to  advance  the  hand  of  a  huge  dial,  which 
was  displayed  on  North  Street  to  indicate  the  progress  of  the 
subscription.  $44,000  was  raised  in  six  days.  Over  2,000 
people  contributed.  The  Women's  Auxiliary,  now  numbering 
300  members,  raised  $5,000;  a  bequest  from  Franklin  W.  Rus- 
sell increased  the  general  fund  by  nearly  $100,000;  and  a  gift 
from  the  heirs  of  WilUam  E.  Tillotson  added  $25,000  to  the 
building  fund. 


194  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

The  corner  stone  of  the  new  building  was  laid  August  first, 
1909.  The  architects  were  Messrs.  Harding  and  Seaver  of 
Pittsfield.  Their  plans  were  for  a  four-story  structure  of  brick, 
On  the  third  and  fourth  floors  were  arranged  seventy-four  sleep- 
ing rooms.  The  design  provided  a  spacious  auditorium,  a 
Women's  Auxiliary  room,  executive  offices,  classrooms,  a  res- 
taurant, reading  and  recreation  rooms,  bowling  alleys,  and  a 
gymnasium,  having  a  floor  space  of  3,000  square  feet  and  equip- 
ped with  shower  baths  and  lockers,  and,  in  the  basement,  a 
swimming  pool.  These  plans  having  been  executed,  the  build- 
ing was  formally  opened  on  September  fifteenth,  1910.  The 
cost  was  approximately  $185,000.  In  completeness  of  equip- 
ment and  adaptability  to  its  purposes,  the  building  was  the  equal 
of  any  Y.  M.  C.  A.  headquarters  in  the  state.  Viewed  as  a  mat- 
ter of  policy,  the  erection  of  the  new  building  appears  to  have 
been  almost  immediately  justified.  The  membership  was  730  in 
January,  1910,  and  at  the  close  of  the  year  it  had  more  than 
doubled.     In  1915  the  membership  was  about  1,500. 

The  presidency  of  Samuel  G.  Colt  was  followed  by  that  of 
William  J.  Raybold,  who  is  now  in  office.  The  present  treasurer, 
George  Shipton,  has  for  twenty-nine  years  so  served  the  associa- 
tion. The  ability  of  Edward  N.  Huntress,  the  present  general 
secretary,  has  been,  since  1902,  of  marked  help  to  the  organiza- 
tion. Of  the  other  officers  and  directors,  whose  co-operation  has 
been  especially  valuable,  a  long  list  might  be  made,  for  the  asso- 
ciation has  engaged  the  active  support  of  many  men;  conspicu- 
ous among  them  have  been  Alexander  Kennedy,  Joseph  E. 
Peirson,  Irving  D.  Ferrey,  William  H.  Chamberlin,  Allen  H. 
Bagg,  William  A.  Whittlesey,  Charles  L.  Hibbard,  Charles  Mc- 
Kernon,  and  George  H.  Cooper. 

Father  Purcell,  the  beloved  priest  of  St.  Joseph's  for  many 
years,  was  apparently  a  placid,  easy-going  man,  but  he  was  able 
to  animate  the  priests  who  from  time  to  time  assisted  him  with  a 
spirit  of  unusual  activity.  His  assistant  in  1874  was  Rev. 
Thomas  N.  Smythe.  Father  Smythe,  devoting  himself  in  par- 
ticular to  the  younger  people  of  the  church,  was  a  firm  believer 
in  organization;  and  the  strong  impulse  created  by  a  recent 
temperance  mission  gave  him  the  opportunity  to  form  the  Pitts- 


YOUNG  PEOPLE'S  ASSOCIATIONS  195 

jfield  Catholic  Total  Abstinence  and  Benevolent  Society.  The 
first  meeting  was  held  in  February,  1874,  and  the  first  president 
was  Clement  Coogan.  The  society  had  about  400  members — a 
men's  association  of  a  size  then  without  example  in  the  village. 

Father  Smythe  left  Pittsfield  in  the  following  June.  Perhaps 
the  society  was  deprived  too  soon  of  the  inspiring  direction  of  its 
founder;  perhaps  the  scheme  of  organization,  which  included  a 
modest  system  of  insurance  against  illness  and  death,  was  too 
unwieldy;  perhaps  the  hard  times  of  the  period  affected  the  col- 
lection of  dues.  At  any  rate,  the  membership  list  began  to 
shrink.  In  August,  1877,  the  decision  was  made  to  abandon  the 
system  of  pecuniary  benefits  and  to  change  the  name  of  the 
association  to  the  Father  Mathew  Total  Abstinence  Society.  In 
1878  the  number  of  members  had  dwindled  to  twenty-five. 
The  society  was  probably  on  the  point  of  extinction,  and  that  it 
survived  this  crisis  was  owing  in  chief  to  the  efforts  of  William 
J.  Cullen,  Daniel  W.  Devanney,  and  William  Nugent.  A  series 
of  entertainments  was  devised,  the  hospitable  aid  of  the  ladies 
of  the  parish  was  enlisted,  meetings  were  enlivened  by  good 
speeches  and  songs,  and  the  association  was  revivified.  The 
Father  Mathew  Ladies'  Aid  Society  was  formed  in  1880,  and 
has  been  from  the  beginning  a  helpful  institution,  both  to  its 
own  members  and  to  the  F.  M.  T.  A. 

In  1879  the  F.  M.  T.  A.,  under  the  presidency  of  William 
Nugent,  had  its  home  in  the  Martin  block  on  Park  Square,  and 
in  1885  was  established  in  the  Gamwell  block  on  Columbus 
Avenue.  Thence  the  society  journeyed  up  and  down  North 
Street  until  1908,  when  it  moved  into  quarters  in  the  City  Sav- 
ings Bank  block,  at  the  corner  of  North  and  Fenn  Streets.  The 
presidents  during  this  period  of  migration  and  growth  were 
William  Nugent,  James  E.  Murphy,  Frank  Larkin,  T.  J.  Nelli- 
gan,  William  J.  Cullen,  Edward  H.  Cullen,  William  A.  Fahey, 
James  F.  McCue,  James  Farrell,  John  H.  Kelly,  and  Robert  F. 
Stanton.  William  Nugent  and  William  A.  Fahey  were  the 
treasurers  of  longest  service.  While  many  thoughtful  men  and 
women  of  Pittsfield  by  no  means  lacked  appreciation  at  this 
time  of  the  moral  and  social  value  to  the  community  of  the  work 
of  the  F.  M.  T.  A.,  interest  was  aroused  among  the  general,  and 


196  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

especially  the  youthful,  populace  by  the  corps  of  cadets,  or- 
ganized by  the  members  of  the  society  in  1883.  The  proficiency 
in  drill,  acquired  under  the  instruction  of  William  H.  Marshall, 
won  much  distinction  for  the  corps  throughout  Massachusetts, 
for  it  was  then  the  custom  of  the  various  Father  Mathew  Socie- 
ties in  each  diocese  to  celebrate  an  annual  field  day,  of  which  the 
principal  event  was  a  competitive  drill  by  their  cadet  companies. 

The  F.  M.  T.  A.  diocesan  field  day  in  Pittsfield  in  September, 
1890,  was  a  noteworthy  local  festival  of  the  period.  The  streets 
were  decorated  along  the  line  of  march  of  the  parade,  wherein 
were  counted  twenty  bands  and  drum  corps  and  over  2,000  mem- 
bers of  Father  Mathew  Societies  from  the  five  western  counties 
of  the  state.  A  dinner  at  the  fair  grounds  on  Wahconah  Street 
refreshed  the  paraders,  and  there  they  listened  to  addresses, 
watched  the  drill,  a  baseball  game,  and  a  balloon  ascension,  and 
marveled  at  an  exhibition  by  Hudson  Maxim  of  a  newly  invented 
machine  gun  using  smokeless  powder.  A  more  impressive  ex- 
hibit seems  to  have  been  the  numbers  and  demeanor  of  the 
assembled  young  men. 

Beginning  in  1893,  the  growth  of  St.  Joseph's  was  such  that 
the  parish  was  divided  again  and  again,  and  of  course  this 
growth  broadened  correspondingly  the  possible  field  of  usefulness 
of  the  local  F.  M.  T.  A.  The  society  was  so  circumstanced, 
however,  that  even  the  most  earnest  members  could  hardly  en- 
courage themselves  for  several  years  in  the  hope  of  erecting  a 
building  which  would  enable  them  to  make  the  most  of  their  in- 
creasing opportunities.  Nevertheless,  a  building  fund  was  slowly 
and  laboriously  accumulated,  and  at  length,  in  1896,  a  lot  was 
purchased  on  the  south  side  of  Melville  Street.  Meanwhile,  not 
only  was  the  society  gaining  strength,  but  also  the  people  of  the 
city  were  becoming  wider  awake  to  the  fact  that  worthy  associa- 
tional  work  among  young  men  and  boys  safeguards  the  welfare 
of  the  entire  community.  In  the  spring  of  1911  the  officers  of 
the  society  determined  to  present  their  case  to  the  public  at 
large,  and  to  solicit  subscriptions  to  their  building  fund.  The 
president  was  then  Robert  F.  Stanton,  the  treasurer  was  Wil- 
liam A.  Fahey,  and  upon  the  board  of  governors  were  Rev. 
Michael   J.    O'Connell,    Bartley    Cummings,    James    Henchey, 


YOUNG  PEOPLE'S  ASSOCIATIONS  197 

George  E.  Haynes,  Daniel  F.  Farrell,  Fred  Volin,  John  H.  Kelly, 
James  W.  Synan  and  T.  J.  Nelligan.  Their  zeal  was  rewarded. 
The  ten-days'  campaign  produced  a  fund  of  $47,000,  to  which 
about  3,500  persons  contributed,  without  regard  to  affiliation  of 
any  sort  whatever.  The  result  was  striking  evidence  of  the 
popular  estimate  of  the  society's  work,  and  evidence  no  less 
striking  of  the  popular  solidarity  of  Pittsfield  in  the  support  of 
good  causes. 

The  brick  F.  M.  T.  A.  building  of  three  stories  on  Melville 
Street  was  completed  in  1913  and  dedicated  on  March  twenty- 
second  of  that  year.  The  third  floor,  with  parlors,  dining  hall, 
and  kitchen,  was  assigned  to  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society.  The  sec- 
ond floor  was  planned  for  the  use  of  the  senior  members  of  the 
F.  M.  T.  A.,  providing  an  assembly  hall,  a  library,  and  recreation 
rooms.  The  offices  of  the  society,  and  the  accommodations  for 
junior  members,  were  arranged  on  the  street  floor;  and  the 
basement  contained  bathrooms  and  locker  rooms,  bowling  alleys, 
and  handball  courts.  The  gymnasium,  with  a  height  of  two 
stories,  had  a  floor  space  of  3,750  square  feet.  The  cost  of  the 
building,  furnished  and  equipped,  was  computed  to  be  $65,000. 
The  architect  was  George  E.  Haynes  of  Pittsfield. 

In  1914,  the  presidency  of  Robert  F.  Stanton  was  succeeded 
by  that  of  William  A.  Fahey,  who  then  served  for  two  years, 
after  which  Mr.  Stanton  was  again  chosen.  The  membership 
in  1915  was  approximately  800,  and  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society  had 
about  200  members.  A  general  secretary  was  engaged  when  the 
new  building  was  occupied;  and  religious,  social,  educational, 
and  athletic  activities  are  successfully  carried  on,  along  the  lines 
best  approved  in  modern  associational  work.  An  important 
branch  of  the  association,  of  recent  development,  is  the  junior 
section,  numbering  about  200  boys.  The  educational  privileges 
offered  to  the  members  of  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society  in  their  pleasant 
rooms  have  been  so  extended  as  to  include  instruction  in  modern 
languages,  cooking,  current  events,  physical  culture,  and  sewing. 

The  local  organizations  whose  history  this  chapter  has  now 
briefly  narrated  have  many  counterparts  in  other  cities,  but  the 
Pittsfield  institution  about  to  be  described  is  in  many  respects 
unique  in  New  England,  if  not  in  the  United  States. 


198  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Boys'  clubs  on  a  small  scale  were  known  in  Pittsfield  soon 
after  1880;  and  in  1888  Joseph  E.  Peirson  read  a  paper  on  the 
subject  before  the  Monday  Evening  Club.  A  few  years  later,  a 
boys'  club  was  formed  by  the  Union  for  Home  Work,  and  con- 
ducted by  some  of  the  volunteer  officers  of  that  Pittsfield  charity 
and  their  friends  in  its  house  on  Fenn  Street.  The  enrolment,  in 
1896,  was  about  200,  but  lack  of  room  prohibited  the  attendance 
of  members  except  in  small  detachments.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, no  systematic  or  purposeful  work  could  even  be  at- 
tempted, and  the  undertaking  was  soon  abandoned. 

The  boys'  club  idea,  however,  had  been  firmly  planted  in  the 
larger  cities;  and  the  National  Boys'  Club  Association  had  been 
organized,  a  philanthropic  enterprise  now  extinct,  which  had 
headquarters  in  Springfield.  Under  the  nominal  auspices  of  this 
association,  but  actually  initiated  and  supported  by  Zenas  Crane 
of  Dalton,  a  boys'  club  was  opened  in  Pittsfield,  on  March  fifth, 
1900,  in  a  room  in  the  Renne  building  on  Fenn  Street.  For 
this  club  were  obtained  the  services,  as  local  treasurer,  of  Henry 
A.  Brewster,  and,  as  superintendent,  of  Prentice  A.  Jordan,  who 
then  came  to  Pittsfield  from  Salem,  Massachusetts,  where  he  had 
acquired  some  experience  in  a  similar  position.  The  possible 
value  of  the  club  to  the  city  was  perceived  by  several  business 
men.  They  met  on  June  fifth,  1900,  incorporated  themselves 
under  the  name  of  the  Boys'  Club  of  Pittsfield,  and  chose  William 
C.  Stevenson,  John  McQuaid,  Henry  A.  Brewster,  Henry  R. 
Peirson,  William  D.  Maclnnes,  and  Arthur  A.  Mills  to  serve  on 
the  board  of  directors.     Mr.  Stevenson  was  elected  president. 

In  the  following  September,  the  club,  having  an  enrolment  of 
600  boys,  rented  additional  rooms  in  the  Renne  building,  and 
was  ready  to  experiment  with  a  venture  which  has  since  become 
its  most  distinctive  and  vital  function — that  is  to  say,  vocational 
training.  During  the  next  five  years,  classes  were  organized, 
each  under  an  efficient  instructor,  in  light  carpentry,  mechanical 
drawing,  sign  lettering,  shoemaking,  free-hand  drawing,  and 
clay  modeling.  Chiefly  of  their  own  volition,  the  boys  flocked  to 
the  classrooms.  Their  self-inspired  eagerness  was  significant. 
It  was  ascribable,  of  course,  to  the  natural  desire  of  the  average 
boy  "to  do  things",  and  to  do  things  better  than  the  other  fellow 


YOUNG  PEOPLE'S  ASSOCIATIONS  199 

does  them.  The  characteristic  and  peculiar  feature  of  the  devel- 
opment of  the  Pittsfield  Boys'  Club  was  that  this  desire,  the 
proper  means  of  its  gratification  having  been  supplied,  was  left 
in  great  part  to  itself.  Thus  the  club  was  developed  in  response 
to  the  wholesome  demands  of  the  boys  themselves,  and  sought 
neither  to  prove  nor  to  disprove  any  cut  and  dried  theory  of 
sociological  pundits. 

No  fees  were  charged,  and  the  club  was  dependent  wholly 
upon  current  donations  for  financial  support.  An  appeal,  how- 
ever, to  the  central  oflBce  of  the  National  Boys'  Club  Association 
was  always  answered  by  a  liberal  contribution  from  an  unknown 
donor.  In  1905  his  identity  was  disclosed,  when  Zenas  Crane 
offered  to  erect  and  to  give  to  the  club  a  building,  with  funds 
sufficient  for  its  maintenance,  upon  the  sole  condition  that  boys 
of  the  town  of  Dalton  should  share  the  privileges  of  membership 
with  the  boys  of  Pittsfield.  The  club  had  then  been  in  existence 
only  five  years.  That  in  this  brief  period  it  had  made  its  merit 
sufficiently  apparent  to  justify  a  gift  of  this  character  was  not 
the  least  creditable  of  its  achievements. 

Messrs.  Harding  and  Seaver  of  Pittsfield  were  the  architects 
of  the  three-story  brick  building,  which  was  erected  on  the  south 
side  of  Melville  Street  and  dedicated  on  March  nineteenth,  1906. 
The  building  contained  an  auditorium,  with  a  seating  capacity  of 
500,  a  library  and  recreation  rooms,  eight  classrooms,  a  gymna- 
sium, bowling  alleys  and  bathrooms.  It  was  believed  that  the 
land,  construction,  and  equipment  represented  an  outlay  of 
about  $50,000.  In  the  rear  of  the  original  building,  Mr.  Crane 
later  provided  a  gymnasium,  with  floor  dimensions  of  forty-five 
by  eighty  feet.  This  was  opened  in  1910,  and  allowed  the  devo- 
tion of  more  space  in  the  main  building  to  vocational  training. 
Such  space  soon  became  necessary. 

Established  in  its  new  quarters,  the  club  raised  its  enrolment 
to  1,600  in  1915.  The  branches  of  free  instruction  offered  in 
the  Fenn  Street  rooms  were  continued  with  greatly  bettered  and 
of  course  enlarged  facilities,  and  classes  in  typewriting  and  elec- 
trical fitting  were  added.  The  school  of  music,  a  department  of 
the  club  supported  and  guided  by  Mrs.  Frederic  S.  Coolidge, 
gained  steadily  in  value.     For  the  younger  boys,  a  story-telling 


200  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

section  was  organized.  A  "Round  Table  Club"  and  a  "Lyceum 
Society"  were  instituted,  giving  their  members  the  advantage  of 
listening  to  counsel  preparatory  to  the  selection  of  a  trade  or  pro- 
fession, and  with  the  object  of  adjusting  their  abilities  to  social 
and  economic  needs.  Above  all,  adherence  was  maintained  to 
the  fundamental  principle  of  the  club,  that  its  activities  should 
express  the  healthful  aspirations  of  the  boys  themselves.  The 
fact  that  the  club  thus  became  with  increasing  effect  a  free  school 
where  a  boy  might  learn  a  trade  and,  what  is  more,  where  he 
might  learn  the  direction  of  that  natural  ability  for  some  trade 
which  most  boys  possess,  was  due  primarily  to  the  boys'  own 
wish. 

Annually,  in  the  summer  and  the  autumn,  the  management 
of  the  club  forms  leagues  of  baseball  and  football  teams,  repre- 
senting the  different  public  schools  of  the  city  of  grammar  school 
grade,  and  each  series  of  games  is  played  under  its  supervision. 
Contests  in  basketball  and  bowling  are  arranged  during  the 
winter  in  the  gymnasium,  where  skilled  athletic  instructors  are 
employed,  and  where  it  is  sought,  as  in  the  other  departments  of 
the  club,  to  satisfy  every  wholesome  desire  of  average,  normal 
boyhood.  It  was  with  this  object  in  view  that  a  farm  was  ac- 
quired in  1909  on  the  southeastern  border  of  Richmond  Pond; 
and  a  summer  camp  was  opened  for  the  enjoyment  and  profit 
of  the  club  members.  A  bequest  from  Franklin  W.  Russell  to 
the  club  was  largely  devoted  to  this  purpose,  and  his  name  was 
therefore  given  to  the  farm  and  the  camp,  which  in  1915  utilized 
about  200  acres  of  land. 

But,  after  all,  vocational  training,  without  cost  to  the  learners 
or  to  the  municipal  treasury,  remains  the  chief  and  practical 
benefit  which  the  development  of  the  Boys'  Club  has  secured  to 
the  community  of  Pittsfield.  Supported  by  yearly  subscribers 
and  by  the  generosity  of  Zenas  Crane,  the  club  has  become  a  free 
school  of  thrift,  of  which  the  tendency  is  to  make  the  rational 
choice  of  a  trade,  and  the  learning  of  the  rudiments  of  that  trade, 
not  only  possible  but  attractive.  Furthermore,  the  club  serves 
to  fuse  not  inconsiderably  the  varying  racial  and  sectarian  ele- 
ments of  the  youthful  population,  for  the  membership  is  unre- 
stricted, and  the  enrolment  begins  entirely  anew  every  autumn. 


YOUNG  PEOPLE'S  ASSOCIATIONS  201 

Nor  does  the  influence  of  the  institution  over  those  who  have 
shared  its  advantages  cease  when  they  have  been  graduated  by 
age  from  active  membership.  An  alumni  association  was  volun- 
tarily formed  in  1914,  and  from  this  have  been  chosen  officers  of 
the  directorate  and  instructors  for  the  classrooms. 

William  C.  Stevenson,  now  the  president,  has  continuously 
served  in  that  capacity  since  the  organization  of  the  club.  The 
successive  treasurers  have  been  Henry  A,  Brewster,  Edward  B. 
Hull,  Frank  Bonney,  and  Charles  F.  Reid,  Jr.  Besides  Mr. 
Stevenson,  the  only  director  now  in  office  who  was  on  the  original 
board  is  John  McQuaid,  chairman  of  the  house  committee. 
Prentice  A.  Jordan,  the  present  superintendent,  has  served  the 
club  also  from  its  birth,  and  with  a  lively  understanding  of  boy- 
hood and  rare  devotion  to  purpose  has  wrought  a  great  part  of 
its  success. 

While  the  social  and  educational  results  accomplished  in 
Pittsfield  for  their  members  by  the  Working  Girls'  Club  and  the 
Business  Women's  Club  may  be  likened  to  those  effected  by  the 
three  organizations  which  have  been  named  in  this  chapter,  and 
may  therefore  permit  a  certain  classification  with  them,  a  sharp 
distinction  is  to  be  drawn  between  the  two  groups  so  far  as  their 
methods  of  maintenance  are  concerned.  The  Working  Girls' 
Club  and  the  Business  Women's  Club,  being  in  essence  private 
associations,  have  been  self-governing  and  self-reliant,  have  never 
appealed  to  the  community  for  any  financial  assistance,  and  have 
been  supported  democratically  by  their  members,  share  and 
share  alike. 

The  Working  Girls'  Club  was  formed  on  November  fifteenth, 
1890,  according  to  a  plan  suggested  by  Miss  Grace  Dodge  of 
New  York,  an  authority  of  experience  with  similar  associations, 
who  was  invited  to  Pittsfield  to  explain  such  organizations  by  the 
members  of  the  Winter  Nights  Club.  The  local  Working  Girls' 
Club  began  with  125  members  and  in  rooms  in  the  Backus  build- 
ing, on  Bank  Row.  Classes  were  maintained  in  stenography, 
dressmaking,  physical  culture,  and  other  branches;  and  the 
membership  fee  was  twenty-five  cents  a  month.  The  club  en- 
countered early  vicissitudes.  In  1894,  when  times  were  hard 
and  employment  was  scarce,  the  number  of  members  was  reduced 


202  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

to  forty.  Nevertheless,  they  clung  fast  to  the  principle,  as  they 
have  ever  done,  that  the  club  should  be  self-sustaining,  and 
should  never  circulate  a  public  subscription  paper.  When  the 
rent  was  too  large  for  the  girls  themselves  to  pay,  the  accommo- 
dations were  reduced,  and  no  wealthy  friend  was  permitted  to 
replenish  the  treasury.  The  club  was  maintained  and  conducted 
by,  and  not  for,  its  young  women. 

The  membership  list  showed  seventy  names  in  1895,  when 
classes  were  added  in  English  literature,  cooking,  dancing,  and 
vocal  music,  and  after  that  year  the  club  grew  steadily  and 
healthfully.  Rooms  in  the  Backus  building  were  occupied  by 
the  club  during  the  first  two  years  of  its  career,  and  the  next 
twelve  were  spent  in  the  wooden  Wollison  building,  on  North 
Street.  The  club  moved  to  the  Blatchford  building  on  North 
Street  in  1904.  There  the  club  was  enabled  to  make  more  at- 
tractive its  social  life  and  to  indicate  more  emphatically  the 
possibilities  of  an  associational  center  for  the  wage-earning  girls 
of  the  city. 

In  1910  several  Pittsfield  men  and  women,  whom  these  pos- 
sibilities impressed,  incorporated  themselves  under  the  name  of 
the  Young  Women's  Home  Association,  for  the  purpose  of  pro- 
viding better  quarters  for  leasing  to  the  W^orking  Girls'  Club  and 
to  any  kindred  organizations  which  might  be  formed  in  the 
future.  The  Young  Women's  Home  Association,  of  which  the 
president  has  been  William  C.  Stevenson  since  its  incorporation, 
at  once  refitted  the  third  floor  of  the  former  Backus  block,  now 
the  Park  Building,  and  in  1910  became  the  landlord  of  the  Work- 
ing Girls'  Club,  which  thus  found  itself  on  the  twentieth  anni- 
versary of  its  birth  again  in  its  birthplace,  and  with  the  oppor- 
tunities of  enjoyment  and  benefit  for  its  members  greatly  ex- 
tended. Some  of  the  officers  to  whom  much  of  the  credit  for 
the  hard-won  success  of  the  Working  Girls'  Club  must  be  as- 
cribed have  been  Miss  Martha  G.  B.  Clapp,  Miss  Mary  J.  Lin- 
ton, and  Miss  Ara  M.  West. 

Meanwhile  had  been  formed  the  Business  Women's  Club. 
It  was  organized  on  January  sixteenth,  1909,  by  fourteen  young 
women  of  the  Methodist  Church,  meeting  at  the  parsonage  with 
Mrs.  C.  L.  Leonard,  who  was  the  first  president.     The  member- 


YOUNG  PEOPLE'S  ASSOCIATIONS  203 

ship,  upon  which  no  sectarian  restrictions  were  placed,  increased 
rapidly.  In  1910  the  club  had  its  rooms  in  the  Wright  building 
on  North  Street,  and  its  purpose  was  like  that  of  the  Working 
Girls'  Club,  to  which  it  was  akin  also  in  the  democratic  principle 
of  self-reliance  and  self-support. 

The  Young  Women's  Home  Association  offered  a  home  to  the 
Business  Women's  Club  in  the  summer  of  1910,  and  the  latter, 
in  the  fall  of  that  year,  was  installed  in  rooms  on  the  third  jBoor 
of  the  Park  Building,  which  were  partly  occupied  by  its  sister 
society,  the  Working  Girls'  Club.  Early  in  1911  the  Home  As- 
sociation leased  the  upper  floor  of  the  adjacent  Martin  block  on 
Bank  Row,  connected  it  with  the  third  floor  of  the  Park  Building, 
and  equipped  it  for  use  by  the  two  clubs.  In  these  commodious 
quarters  both  organizations  prospered  immediately  and  amicably. 
During  the  month  of  February  of  1911,  for  example,  the  total 
attendance  was  2,605,  and  forty-nine  classes  were  well  patronized, 
in  domestic  science,  current  events,  giving  first  aid  to  the  in- 
jured, gymnastics,  dancing,  sewing,  and  millinery.  A  dramatic 
club  was  formed.  The  parlors  and  reading  room,  and  a  res- 
taurant under  the  supervision  of  a  housekeeper,  were  pleasant 
attractions.  The  officers  whose  efforts  were  of  especial  value  in 
guiding  the  affairs  of  the  Business  Women's  Club  were  Mrs.  C. 
L.  Leonard,  Mrs.  J.  L.  Gilmore,  Mrs.  H.  L.  Dawes,  and  Dr. 
Mary  Anna  Wood. 

An  informal  but  successful  attempt  made  in  1911  by  members 
of  both  clubs  to  interest  girls  of  the  public  schools  in  gymnastics 
and  folk  dancing  caused  the  organization  in  January,  1913,  of 
the  Girls'  League,  to  which  the  Home  Association  allotted  rooms 
on  the  second  floor  of  the  Park  Building.  Miss  Gertrude  A.  J. 
Peaslee  was  employed  as  general  secretary  for  this  league  of 
younger  girls,  and  in  addition  to  the  instruction  offered  in  danc- 
ing and  physical  culture,  a  class  was  formed  for  nature  study, 
and  a  cooking  school  was  organized.  The  league  was  initiated 
by  and  under  the  direction  of  the  Young  Women's  Home  Associa- 
tion. 

It  was  on  February  twenty-second,  1914,  that  the  ultimate 
intention  of  the  association  was  revealed.  Announcement  was 
then  made,  to  an  enthusiastic  audience  gathered  in  the  assembly 


204  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

hall  in  the  Park  Building,  that  an  unnamed,  and  now  a  still  un- 
named, donor  had  made  the  association  owner  of  a  lot  on  the  east 
corner  of  East  and  First  Streets,  in  dimensions  about  130  by  190 
feet,  and  of  a  sum  of  money  sufficient  to  erect  an  adequate  build- 
ing thereon  for  occupancy  by  the  Working  Girls'  Club,  the  Busi- 
ness Women's  Club,  and  the  Girls'  League. 

The  possession  of  this  land  and  this  fund  by  the  Young 
Women's  Home  Association  may  be  said,  if  one  is  inclined  to 
discount  the  future  a  trifle,  to  complete  Pittsfield's  equipment  for 
promoting  the  social,  physical,  industrial,  and  moral  welfare  of 
boys  and  girls,  and  of  young  men  and  young  women.  The 
thought  and  conscientious  effort  which  have  been  rewarded  by 
the  provision  of  this  equipment,  and  some  of  which  are  suggested 
in  the  foregoing  pages,  have  been  other  than  ordinary.  The 
thought  and  the  effort  have  constituted,  during  the  first  quarter- 
century  of  the  city's  existence,  an  important  part  of  the  city's 
domestic  life,  and  a  record  of  them  and  their  results  are  a  part 
not  unimportant  of  the  city's  history. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
THE  HOUSE  OF  MERCY 

THE  charitable  desire  to  establish  a  public  hospital  in  Pitts- 
field  was  first  made  practically  manifest  in  1872,  when 
Mrs.  Thomas  S.  O'Sullivan  placed  $100  for  such  a  purpose 
in  the  hands  of  Rev.  John  Todd  of  the  First  Church.  The  gift 
was  an  immediate  response  to  a  suggestion  made  by  Dr.  Todd  in 
a  Thanksgiving  Day  sermon,  and  it  was  followed  by  the  offer  of 
the  same  sum  by  William  Durant,  whose  Pittsfield  property 
then  included  a  section  of  pasture  land  near  the  present  line  of 
Second  Street. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed,  of  course,  that  before  this  time  the 
needs  of  the  sick,  to  whom  the  straits  of  circumstance  denied  a 
proper  care,  were  disregarded  by  the  good  people  of  the  village. 
There  were  always  many  Pittsfield  women  of  whose  daily  oc- 
cupations a  part  was  a  visit  to  some  humble  invalids,  nor  were  the 
Pittsfield  physicians  of  former  generations  less  generously  heedful 
to  the  call  of  distress  than  are  the  doctors  of  today.  Dr.  Henry 
H.  Childs,  in  the  ante-bellum  era  when  flourished  the  medical 
college  on  South  Street,  had  urged  the  establishment  of  a  hos- 
pital in  connection  with  the  free  clinics  at  the  school.  Later,  in 
1871,  the  Eagle  was  authorized  to  say  that  "a  gentleman  of 
wealth,  a  resident  of  the  county  and  a  graduate  of  the  Berkshire 
Medical  Institute,  has  offered  to  give  $50,000  toward  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  county  hospital,  provided  as  much  more  can  be 
raised."  But  a  public  hospital  necessarily  meant  then  to  the 
American  layman  a  large  and  an  expensive  institution.  This 
country  possessed  no  charitable  hospitals  except  in  the  great 
cities.  The  notion  that  one  could  be  supported  by  a  small  com- 
munity seemed,  in  1872,  utterly  chimerical.  The  popular  mind 
vaguely  conceived  organized  hospital  relief  on  the  vast  and  tragic 
scale  exhibited  in  the  Civil  War.     When  Mrs.  O'Sullivan  and 


206  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Mr.  Durant  offered  two  hundred  dollars  to  Dr.  Todd  for  the 
nucleus  of  a  hospital  fund,  it  was  seriously  estimated  that  half  a 
million  would  be  needed  to  erect  and  maintain  a  hospital  for 
Pittsfield,  then  a  town  of  about  10,000  inhabitants. 

In  1874,  there  drifted  across  the  sea  from  England,  to  find 
lodgment  in  the  receptive  brains  of  Pittsfield  women,  the  idea 
of  the  cottage  hospital  for  rural  communities.  It  was  expressed 
in  a  little  book  by  an  English  physician,  who  believed  that  the 
essentials  of  a  hospital  were  a  roof,  a  bed,  and  a  nurse,  and  that 
philanthropy,  working  in  its  ordinary  channels,  could  always  be 
relied  upon  to  provide  food  and  medical  care.  Considered  from 
this  point  of  view,  the  hospital  problem  in  Pittsfield  was  plainly 
simplified.  A  massive  building,  manned  by  a  permanent  medical 
staff  and  supplied  with  the  paraphernalia  of  Bellevue  or  the 
Massachusetts  General,  was  seen  to  be  unnecessary.  Beginning 
about  1859,  England  had  been  dotted  with  these  cottage  hos- 
pitals; the  first  of  them  established  in  the  United  States  was  at 
Pittsfield,  and  by  Pittsfield  women;  and  its  first  advocates  were 
Mrs.  W.  E.  Vermilye,  Miss  Sarah  D.  Todd,  Mrs.  W.  M.  Root, 
and  Mrs.  Thomas  F.  Plunkett,  who  met  to  talk  it  over,  one  June 
morning,  in  Mrs.  Plunkett's  garden. 

It  was  then  decided  that  newspaper  notices  should  announce 
a  meeting  of  women  in  the  "lecture  room"  of  the  First  Church, 
on  June  twentieth,  1874.  Dr.  J.  F.  A.  Adams  was  asked  to  ad- 
dress it.  Dr.  Adams  was  already  an  experienced  student  of  hos- 
pital science,  but  it  appears  that  he  wisely  divorced  his  remarks, 
at  that  initial  meeting,  from  technical  detail.  He  presented  the 
hospital  question,  so  far  as  it  concerned  Pittsfield,  as  one  of 
household  management  and  housewifely  ability;  and  his  au- 
dience of  New  England  housewives,  who  might  have  been  con- 
fused or  discouraged  by  medical  terms  and  a  string  of  statistical 
figures,  felt  sure  that  here  was  a  field  of  public  service  where  they 
would  be  energetically  at  home.  They  determined  immediately 
to  form  an  association  of  women  for  the  purpose  of  raising  money 
to  found  a  cottage  hospital  in  Pittsfield. 

The  method  selected,  that  of  holding  a  "bazar"  or  over- 
grown church  fair,  probably  commended  itself  merely  because 
it  was  familiar,  and  it  might  now  be  considered  neither  econom- 


THE  HOUSE  OF  MERCY  207 

ical  nor  efficient;  but  it  enlisted  the  arduous  preparatory  labor 
of  so  many  individuals  that  its  reward  was  not  measurable  in 
money.  No  event  of  a  similar  character  ever  had  so  stirred  the 
town  or  promoted,  to  such  a  degree,  a  fraternal  relation  among 
its  Christian  people.  In  the  meantime,  sympathy  with  the 
undertaking  was  emphatically  quickened  by  the  piteous  death, 
at  the  village  lockup,  of  the  victim  of  a  railroad  accident.  The 
wooden  police  station  on  School  Street,  primitive  and  unclean, 
was  then  the  town's  only  emergency  hospital  and  public  mor- 
tuary chapel.  Its  shameful  condition  was  vividly  described  in  a 
stinging  letter  by  Rev.  John  F.  Clymer,  which  a  local  newspaper 
published  after  the  fatal  accident;  and  the  community  was  there- 
by the  more  forcibly  impelled  to  action. 

"The  Grand  Union  Hospital  Bazar"  was  opened  on  Septem- 
ber fifteenth,  1874,  at  the  lecture  room  of  the  First  Church,  and 
was  continued  for  five  days.  Decorated  booths  for  the  sale  of 
useful  and  ornamental  articles  were  equipped  by  the  women  of 
various  churches  and  social  organizations,  a  restaurant  catered  to 
the  multitude,  a  series  of  concerts  was  presented,  and  in  an  ante- 
room Col.  Walter  Cutting  regaled  spectators  with  feats  of  leger- 
demain. At  the  close  of  the  bazar,  the  managers  found  them- 
selves in  possession  of  nearly  $6,000.  A  portion  of  this  had  come 
in  the  form  of  direct  donations  of  cash.  The  people  of  St. 
Joseph's  Church,  for  example,  thus  helped  generously;  their  sub- 
scription was  headed  by  Father  Purcell,  and  of  the  box  which  con- 
tained the  contribution  of  his  parishioners,  the  treasurer  of  the 
bazar  wrote:  "First  came  the  tens,  and  fives,  and  twos,  and  ones 
in  bills,  then  followed  package  after  package  of  'shin-plasters' — 
the  little  bills  of  war  times — and  finally  roll  after  roll  of  pennies, 
carefully  counted  and  marked."  Here  evidently  was  a  project 
which  had  captured  the  popular  heart. 

Legal  incorporation  was  soon  effected,  and  on  November 
twenty-seventh,  1874,  a  charter  was  granted  by  the  Common- 
wealth to  fourteen  women,  who  had  associated  themselves,  ac- 
cording to  its  terms,  "for  the  purpose  of  establishing  and  main- 
taining in  Pittsfield,  a  House  of  Mercy,  for  the  care  of  the  sick 
and  disabled,  whether  in  indigent  circumstances  or  not".  The 
name.  House  of  Mercy,  seemed  to  carry  with  it  a  certain  bene- 


208  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

diction,  for  Dr.  John  Todd,  who  had  suggested  it  in  the  Thanks- 
giving Day  sermon  already  mentioned,  had  died  in  1873,  The 
by-laws  provided  that  the  members  of  the  corporation  should  be 
the  incorporators  and  "such  other  persons  as  shall  be  chosen 
members  by  the  Corporation,  and  shall  accept  membership 
therein  by  signing  the  by-laws,  and  by  paying  annually  three 
dollars."  The  first  officers  elected  by  the  corporation  were :  presi- 
dent, Mrs.  John  Todd;  vice-presidents,  Mrs.  C.  H.  Bigelow,  Mrs. 
W.  E.  Vermilye,  Mrs.  T.  F.  Plunkett,  and  Miss  Sarah  D.  Todd; 
clerk,  Miss  Sarah  E.  Sandys;  treasurer,  Mrs.  W.  M.  Root; 
corresponding  secretary,  Mrs.  E.  H.  Kellogg;  recording  secre- 
tary, Mrs.  N.  F.  Lamberson;  directors,  Mrs.  Owen  Coogan, 
Mrs.  H.  M.  Peirson,  Mrs.  John  Devanny,  Mrs.  B.  F.  Fuller, 
Mrs.  John  Haeger,  Mrs.  Albert  Tolman,  Mrs.  A.  N.  Allen,  Mrs. 
A.  D.  Francis,  Mrs.  William  Pollock,  Mrs.  Charles  Bailey,  Mrs. 
Edward  Learned,  Mrs.  H.  G.  Davis,  Mrs.  O.  E.  Brewster,  Mrs. 
Joseph  Gregory,  Mrs.  C.  N.  Emerson,  Mrs.  F.  F.  Read,  Mrs. 
L.  F.  Sperry,  and  Mrs.  C.  C.  Childs. 

It  is  needful  to  observe  that,  in  their  undertaking,  these 
women  had  no  pattern  by  which  they  might  be  guided;  they  were 
obliged  to  break  new  ground.  They  had  no  adequate  financial 
endowment.  Their  income  was  sufficient  to  pay  merely  the  rent 
of  a  small  dwelling  house.  In  the  press  of  hard  times,  they  faced 
the  task  of  almost  daily  begging,  and  begging  through  an  or- 
ganization planned  on  unsectarian  lines  then  untried  in  Pittsfield 
and  rare  in  this  country.  The  practical  result  at  which  they 
aimed,  that  is,  a  cottage  hospital,  was  not  visible  on  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic.  Even  the  profession  of  trained  nursing  was  still  to 
be  imported,  for  the  first  training  school  for  nurses  in  the  United 
States  was  opened  in  1874,  at  Bellevue,  while  the  founders  of  the 
House  of  Mercy  were  holding  their  bazar. 

They  were  fortunate,  however,  in  the  possession  of  skilled, 
tactful,  and  enthusiastic  counselors.  Dr.  J.  F.  A.  Adams,  Dr. 
W.  E.  Vermilye,  and  Dr.  F.  K.  Paddock  were  not  only  able  in 
their  vocation;  they  were  men  also  of  alert  mind  and  kindly 
soul,  quick  to  perceive  the  wide  benefit  to  the  town  which  the 
House  of  Mercy  might  accomplish,  and  they  freely  gave  to  it 
from  the  beginning  their  untiring  assistance.     The  first  legal 


JABEZ  L.  PECK 
1826—1895 


WILLIAM  R.  PLUNKETT 
1831—1903 


REV. 


EDWARD  H.  PURCELL 
1827—1891 


REV.  JONATHAN  L.  JENKINS 
1830—1913 


THE  HOUSE  OF  MERCY  209 

advisers  of  the  directorate  were  James  M.  Barker  and  William  R. 
Plunkett,  whose  interest  in  the  hospital  ended  only  with  their 
lives.  But  it  was,  after  all,  the  humane  spirit  of  the  people  at 
large  upon  which  the  women  of  the  House  of  Mercy  depended. 
This  did  not  fail  them.  The  record  of  voluntary  gifts  made  to 
the  young  hospital  is  impressive — the  contents  of  the  toy  savings 
banks,  the  abatements  of  the  tradesmen's  bills,  the  proceeds  of 
concerts,  of  amateur  theatricals,  and  of  baseball  games,  the  daily 
contributions  of  vegetables  and  housekeeping  supplies.  It  ap- 
pears that  every  class  of  men,  women,  and  children  in  Pittsfield 
was  included  among  its  supporters. 

A  cottage,  of  which  the  hospital  accommodation  was  eight 
beds,  was  rented  on  Francis  Avenue,  near  Linden  Street,  and 
there  the  House  of  Mercy  opened  its  door  on  January  first,  1875. 
In  the  printed  announcement  of  this  progress,  the  management 
said  to  the  public:  "The  House  of  Mercy,  representing  no  sect, 
or  clique,  no  overshadowing  influential  person  or  family,  but 
that  divine  spirit  of  pity  for  the  suffering  which  dwells  in  multi- 
tudes of  gentle  hearts,  is  thus  placed  in  your  midst 

Hereafter,  none  need  to  lie  down  at  night,  feeling  that  any  poor 
sick  person  is  perishing  for  lack  of  needed  help;  and  though  we 
incur  the  title  of  everlasting  beggars,  in  asking  the  material  aid 
which  shall  perpetuate  the  systematic  charity  now  planted  in 
this  community,  we  will  promise  to  desist,  when  sickness  and 
suffering  and  poverty  shall  cease  among  the  children  of  men". 
During  its  first  year  the  little  institution  cared  for  twenty-two 
inmates.  Miss  Martha  Goodrich,  who  had  served  in  military 
hospitals,  was  its  superintendent,  housekeeper,  and  entire  nurs- 
ing staff.  The  medical  director  was  Dr.  J.  F.  A.  Adams;  the 
surgical  director  was  Dr.  F.  K.  Paddock;  Dr.  O.  S.  Roberts, 
Dr.  C.  D.  Mills,  and  Dr.  W.  E.  Vermilye  were  attending  physi- 
cians. 

In  1876  Mrs.  John  Todd  resigned  the  presidency,  and  Mrs. 
Thomas  F.  Plunkett  was  elected  to  that  office.  A  building  fund 
was  already  in  process  of  subscription.  In  1877  it  was  sufficient 
to  warrant  the  purchase  of  a  site  and  the  consideration  of  archi- 
tects' plans.  104  subscribers,  resident  in  Pittsfield,  Lee,  Dalton, 
Lenox,  Great  Barrington,  and  Stockbridge,  contributed  to  the 


210  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

fund.  A  triangular  lot  was  purchased  at  the  intersection  of 
North,  Tyler  and  First  Streets,  where  the  corner  stone  of  the 
new  building  was  hallowed,  on  September  first,  1877,  by  the 
venerable  and  merciful  hands  of  Mrs.  Curtis  T.  Fenn.  "What 
tender  prayers  rose  heavenward  on  that  golden  afternoon,  when, 
in  the  slanting  sunshine,  the  corner  stone  of  the  House  of  Mercy 
was  laid!"  So  spoke  Judge  Barker,  in  his  address  at  the  inaugu- 
ration of  the  first  city  government,  fourteen  years  later. 

The  building  was  ready  for  occupancy  in  January,  1878. 
It  was  a  two-storied,  wooden  structure,  with  accommodations 
for  thirteen  patients.  The  cost  of  the  land  and  building  was 
$10,600,  of  which  more  than  $500  was  contributed  in  labor  and 
material.  The  subscribed  capital  was  thereby  exhausted,  and 
the  hospital  was  dependent  upon  voluntary  gifts  for  its  yearly 
support.  During  the  first  three  years  in  the  new  house,  the  re- 
ceipts from  pay  patients  were  about  one-seventh  of  the  running 
expenses,  despite  the  fact  that  many  supplies  were  given.  The 
daily  compulsion  of  minute  economies,  and  the  absence  of  any 
precedent  of  conduct  and  policy,  taxed  severely  the  abilities  of 
the  pioneer  directorates;  and  from  that  school  of  experience  was 
graduated  a  group  of  women  whose  devotion  to  the  House  of 
Mercy  was  a  valuable  and  unique  social  force  in  Pittsfield.  Un- 
deniably, a  hospital  to  be  sustained  so  largely  by  current  gifts 
required  from  its  officers  a  sort  of  consecration,  which  should 
carry  them  through  great  labors. 

It  was  not  long  before  a  few  bequests  became  available,  and 
soon  began  the  endowment  of  free  beds  by  organizations,  indi- 
viduals, and  towns  throughout  the  county.  In  1883,  Mrs,  John 
H.  Coffing  gave,  in  memory  of  her  husband,  a  mortuary  chapel. 
The  list  of  annual  subscribers  was  gradually  lengthened.  Never- 
theless, so  urgent  was  the  growing  demand  upon  the  hospital 
that  the  cares  of  the  managers  did  not  decrease,  while  upon  the 
faithful  shoulders  of  the  doctors,  always  giving  their  services 
without  charge,  the  burden  was  multiplied. 

The  important  forward  step  was  taken,  in  1884,  of  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  training  school  for  nurses.  This  owed  its  inception 
to  Mrs.  Solomon  N.  Russell  and  Mrs.  James  H.  Hinsdale,  and 
during  the  first  year  there  were  four  pupils.     The  energetic  di- 


THE  HOUSE  OF  MERCY  211 

rector  was  Miss  Anna  G.  Clement,  who  assumed  the  duties  of 
matron  of  the  House  of  Mercy  in  1884,  and  remained  identified 
with  the  institution  until  1913. 

In  1887,  Henry  W.  Bishop,  a  Berkshire-born  resident  of  Chi- 
cago, expressed  a  desire  to  endow  in  Pittsfield  a  training  school 
for  nurses,  as  a  memorial  to  his  son,  and  proposed  that  the  school, 
although  its  property  was  to  be  legally  vested  in  a  separate  cor- 
poration, should  be  placed  under  the  practical  control  of  the  House 
of  Mercy.  This  generous  offer  was  gratefully  accepted  by  the 
latter,  which  made  a  conveyance  of  land  north  of  its  buildings 
for  the  site  of  the  new  institution;  and  on  August  twenty- 
eighth,  1889,  was  dedicated  the  Henry  W.  Bishop  3rd  Memorial 
Training  School  for  Nurses.  The  graceful,  brick  building,  three 
stories  in  height,  not  only  afforded  adequate  room  for  the  in- 
struction of  nurses,  but  also  nearly  doubled  the  capacity  of  the 
hospital  building,  with  which  a  corridor  connected  it. 

Mr.  Bishop's  fine  gift  was  effectively  employed.  The  en- 
rolment of  pupil  nurses  increased  from  fifteen  in  1889  to  sixty-five 
in  1913,  when  the  supervising  committee  was  forced  to  decide 
that  no  larger  number  could  be  received.  Mrs.  Solomon  N. 
Russell  served  annually  as  chairman  of  this  committee  until  her 
death  in  1908;  she  was  then  succeeded  by  Mrs.  Edward  T.  Slo- 
cum.  The  number  of  graduates  from  1887  to,  and  inclusive  of, 
1915  was  389. 

Private  nursing,  outside  the  hospital,  was  undertaken  by 
senior  pupils,  beginning  in  1886,  under  an  arrangement,  soon 
afterward  altered,  whereby  the  money  paid  for  their  services  was 
turned  into  the  treasury  of  the  House  of  Mercy ;  but  to  the  com- 
munity at  large  the  prime  and  direct  value  of  the  school  has  been 
the  work  performed  by  the  pupils  within  the  hospital  walls. 
That  the  two  institutions  were  coincident  in  purpose  was  recog- 
nized in  1893,  when  the  trustees  of  the  school  corporation  voted 
to  assign  the  property  and  endowments  in  their  hands  to  the 
House  of  Mercy,  the  consent  of  the  donors  and  of  the  latter  insti- 
tution having  been  obtained.  Thereafter  the  school  assumed  its 
doubly  honorable  title,  "The  Henry  W.  Bishop  3rd  Memorial 
Training  School  for  Nurses,  belonging  to  the  House  of  Mercy 
Hospital".     The  spirit  inculcated  by  the  school  was  manifested 


212  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

when  the  graduates,  of  their  own  initiative,  began  the  charitable 
work  of  district  nursing  among  the  homes  of  the  poor,  and  them- 
selves maintained  it  until  its  support  was  assumed  by  the  Visiting 
Nurse  Association. 

Following  the  stimulation  of  Mr.  Bishop's  gift,  the  develop- 
ment of  the  House  of  Mercy  was  rapid.  In  1891,  the  officers 
were  enabled,  through  the  generosity  of  William  F.  Milton,  to 
build  an  isolation  pavilion;  George  H.  Laflin  erected  and  equip- 
ped a  surgical  building  in  1893;  and  in  the  previous  year  a  build- 
ing for  a  men's  ward  and  for  domestic  purposes  was  added, 
largely  by  means  of  a  bequest  from  James  Brewer  Crane.  But 
the  demands  upon  the  hospital  had  also  increased;  in  1892,  for 
example,  it  cared  for  patients  from  twenty-five  towns  and  vil- 
lages outside  of  Pittsfield;  and  not  long  afterward  it  was  occa- 
sionally compelled  to  decline  such  applications  because  of  lack  of 
room. 

The  will  of  Solomon  N.  Russell  had  made  the  corporation 
owner  of  a  broad  tract  of  unoccupied  land  on  North  Street,  oppo- 
site its  crowded  lot,  and  at  the  annual  meeting  of  1900  Mrs. 
James  H.  Hinsdale  and  Mrs.  Solomon  N.  Russell  announced  their 
intention  of  raising  money  to  construct  thereon  a  new  main 
building.  Within  a  few  weeks  they  procured  contributions 
amounting  to  $54,680.  Mrs.  Hinsdale,  Mrs.  Russell,  and  Mrs. 
Slocum  were  appointed  a  building  committee,  and  on  March 
sixth,  1902,  the  result  of  their  faithful  labors  was  opened  for 
public  inspection.  It  was  a  brick  building  of  three  stories,  200 
feet  in  length  and  containing  sixty  patients'  apartments,  besides 
many  rooms  for  those  purposes  required  by  the  most  advanced 
scientific  hospital  management.  The  architect  was  H.  Neill 
Wilson  of  Pittsfield.  The  former  hospital  buildings  were  moved 
across  North  Street  and  faced  with  brick,  and  all  were  connected 
with  the  new  building.  Land  on  the  south,  as  far  as  the  inter- 
section of  North  and  Wahconah  Streets,  was  anonymously  given 
to  the  House  of  Mercy,  and  a  substantial  iron  fence,  surrounding 
its  entire  plot,  was  paid  for  by  George  H.  Laflin.  The  contri- 
butions to  the  new  establishment  of  the  hospital  finally  amounted 
to  nearly  $100,000.  Much  of  this  was  accredited  to  "unknown 
donors".     After  the  death  of  Miss  Maria  L.  Warriner,  in  1911, 


THE  HOUSE  OF  MERCY  213 

it  was  disclosed  that  she  had  been  donor  of  the  most  considerable 
single  gift  to  the  construction  fund,  and  the  central  division  of 
the  main  building  received  the  name  of  "The  Warriner  Me- 
morial". 

At  the  close  of  1902,  the  first  year  of  the  enlarged  hospital, 
twenty -five  of  its  beds  were  supported  by  endowment,  and  sixty- 
seven  of  the  rooms  in  the  three  buildings  had  been  furnished  by 
individuals,  towns,  churches,  and  other  organizations.  In- 
creased opportunity,  of  course,  multiplied  current  expenses.  A 
regulation  provided  that  "a  charge  of  from  $10  to  $20  a  week  will 
be  made  to  those  able  to  pay".  The  receipts  from  this  source 
were,  in  1902,  $7,766  from  322  patients,  most  of  whom  were  able 
only  in  part  to  reimburse  the  hospital  for  their  maintenance  and 
care.  The  outright  charity  patients  numbered  167,  while  those 
listed  as  "doubtful"  and  "by  endowment"  brought  the  total  to 
more  than  500.  The  running  expenses  annually  exceeded 
$30,000.  There  was  reported  to  be  a  weekly  gap  between  ordi- 
nary income  and  outgo,  in  1902,  of  about  $350,  and  this  the 
women  of  the  management,  as  undaunted  as  ever,  succeeded  in 
bridging  by  constant  appeals  to  the  generosity  of  the  people  of 
central  and  southern  Berkshire.  Said  the  president's  report  of 
1904:  "In  calculating  on  the  latent  spirit  of  Christian  benevo- 
lence, that  we  felt  sure  would  respond  to  the  wants  of  the  sick 
and  needy,  we  were  not  mistaken.  A  perpetual  procession  of 
gifts  has  been  brought  to  our  doors".  It  would  have  been  fatu- 
ous, however,  to  expect  this  procession,  had  not  the  public  first 
been  made  to  feel  confident  that  its  gifts  were  used  with  skill  and 
economy,  and  that  the  original  democratic  and  non-sectarian 
lines,  upon  which  the  institution  was  drawn,  were  rigorously  ob- 
served. 

During  its  forty  years  of  existence,  the  most  valuable  gift 
which  the  House  of  Mercy  has  received  has  been  the  daily  and 
nightly  services  of  the  many  charitable  doctors  of  Pittsfield,  who 
have  constituted  the  medical  and  surgical  board,  and  of  whose 
careful  toil  in  the  hospital  gratitude  has  been  the  sole  compensa- 
tion. Dr.  J.  F.  A.  Adams  was  medical  director  until  1883;  in 
1883,  Dr.  W.  E.  Vermilye  served  the  hospital  in  that  capacity; 
in  1884,  Dr.  Adams  resumed  the  directorship;    and  since  1885, 


214  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Dr.  Henry  Colt  has  been  the  chairman  of  the  medical  and  surgi- 
cal staff.  There  were  in  1875  five  attendant  physicians  and 
surgeons  on  this  board;  thirteen  in  1885;  sixteen,  including 
oculists,  in  1895;  in  1915  the  professional  staff  at  the  hospital 
numbered  twenty-four.  The  first  permanent  house  officer,  or 
interne,  was  added  to  the  medical  staff  in  1910. 

An  out-patient  department  was  initiated  in  1882,  when  Zenas 
M.  Crane  of  Dalton  gave  a  "Berkshire  Fund"  to  the  Massachusetts 
Charitable  Eye  and  Ear  Infirmary  in  Boston,  upon  the  stipula- 
tion that  experts  from  that  institution  should  conduct  a  free 
clinic,  once  in  three  months,  at  the  House  of  Mercy;  an  eye  and 
ear  clinic  under  its  own  supervision  was  instituted  at  the  Pitts- 
field  hospital  in  1895.  Medical  and  surgical  cases  treated  as 
out-patients  were  first  mentioned  in  the  medical  report  of  1898, 
when  their  number  was  eighty,  and  in  1915  this  department  em- 
ployed the  services  daily  of  two  doctors,  and  cared  for  261  new 
patients.  In  the  same  year  the  number  of  new  patients  admitted 
to  the  out-patient  orthopedic,  eye,  ear,  nose,  and  throat  clinics 
was  537. 

As  a  memorial  to  Dr.  Franklin  K.  Paddock,  who  died  in  1901, 
his  friends  presented  to  the  hospital  a  new  operating  room; 
and  by  the  John  Todd  Crane  Pathological  Fund,  given  to  the 
House  of  Mercy  in  1910  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Frederick  G.  Crane  of 
Dalton,  a  pathological  laboratory  was  equipped  and  endowed. 

To  catalogue  completely  even  the  more  considerable  gifts  to 
the  House  of  Mercy  is  hardly  consonant  with  the  function  of  these 
pages;  but  it  is  right  to  emphasize  again  that  the  existence  and 
the  efiiciency  of  the  hospital,  while  a  noble  monument  to  the 
charitable  labor  of  Pittsfield  women  and  Pittsfield  doctors,  are 
also  a  striking  testimonial  to  the  philanthropic  spirit  of  all  of  the 
people  of  central  Berkshire.  Worth  noting,  too,  is  the  fact  that 
manifestations  of  this  spirit  in  behalf  of  the  House  of  Mercy  were 
necessarily  perennial  and  not  sporadic.  In  the  maturity  as  well 
as  in  the  youth  of  the  hospital,  its  management  was  compelled 
to  rely  largely  upon  current  gifts  to  meet  current  expenses.  The 
president's  report  thus  stated  the  case,  for  example,  in  1912: 
"There  seems  to  be  a  widespread  and  erroneous  impression  that 
because  the  House  of  Mercy  has  received  many  large  gifts  of 


THE  HOUSE  OF  MERCY  215 

money  it  is  a  very  rich  institution,  and  consequently  can  take  care 
of  itself  with  no  help  from  the  public.  .  .  .  The  treasurer's 
report  shows  that  the  income  last  year  from  investments  was 
$10,367.42  and  the  earnings  of  the  hospital  $35,301.77,  while  the 
expenses  were  $62,089.51,  leaving  $16,420.32  to  be  contributed 
by  its  friends". 

The  officers'  reports  for  1915  give  impressive  evidence  of  the 
progress  achieved  in  the  years  since  the  birth  of  the  House  of 
Mercy  in  1874.  The  number  of  corporate  members  had  risen 
from  fourteen  to  370.  During  its  first  year  the  hospital  cared 
for  twenty-two  patients;  in  the  year  1915  the  number  of  pa- 
tients received  was  2,213.  The  sum  of  $6,000,  which  was  the  en- 
tire working  capital  of  the  institution  in  1874,  had  been  increased 
in  forty  years  to  an  invested  fund  for  all  purposes  of  $345,000. 
The  expense  of  maintenance  for  the  first  fiscal  year  was  $1,400; 
it  was  $80,000  for  the  twelve  months  ending  in  November,  1915. 
The  hospital  in  1915  contained  150  beds,  of  which  fifty-one  were 
endowed.  Eighty-five  rooms  had  been  furnished  by  churches, 
organizations,  and  individuals. 

Miss  Martha  Goodrich  served  as  matron  and  superintendent 
until  1880.  She  was  followed  by  Miss  Lucy  Creemer,  and  Miss 
Mary  A.  Field,  each  of  whom  filled  the  position  for  two  years. 
Miss  Anna  G.  Clement  began  her  quarter-century  of  service  on 
May  first,  1884.  In  1909  Miss  Anna  G.  Hayes  was  appointed 
to  the  position,  but  illness  enforced  her  resignation  in  1910,  when 
she  was  succeeded  by  Miss  Mary  M.  Marcy.  Miss  Clement, 
Miss  Hayes,  and  Miss  Marcy  were  the  superintendents  also  of 
the  training  school  for  nurses;  and  in  1910  Miss  Clement,  to 
whose  ardent  and  intelligent  enthusiasm  the  House  of  Mercy  was 
a  heavy  debtor,  returned  to  the  school  for  a  period  of  three 
years  as  instructor. 

The  successive  presidents  of  the  House  of  Mercy  have  been 
Mrs.  John  Todd,  who  was  elected  in  1874,  Mrs.  Thomas  F. 
Plunkett,  chosen  in  1876,  Mrs.  James  H.  Hinsdale,  in  1907, 
and  Mrs.  Charles  L.  Hibbard,  in  1911.  Mrs.  Washington  M. 
Root,  Mrs.  Charles  E.  West,  Mrs.  Frank  C.  Backus,  and  Mrs. 
William  H.  Hall  have  been  the  treasurers. 

For  scores  of  other  Pittsfield  women,  in  addition  to  those 


216  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

casually  named  in  this  chapter,  the  service  of  the  House  of  Mercy 
was  almost  a  life  work.  The  detail  of  hospital  management,  the 
collection  and  conservation  of  means  of  hospital  support,  the 
solution  of  a  hospital's  large  problems  practical,  problems  theoret- 
ical, and  problems  diplomatic,  were  tasks  which  tested  uniquely 
the  women  of  Pittsfield.  The  value  of  their  service  has  been 
solidly  proved  and  by  the  community  gratefully  acknowledged. 
The  quality  of  their  service  animated  many  able  women  of  fol- 
lowing generations  with  a  noble  resolution  to  carry  on  the  unsel- 
fish work  courageously.  The  inspiration  of  their  service  was 
clear.  Prayer  opened  the  meeting  in  1874  at  which  the  House 
of  Mercy  was  initiated;  reading  of  the  Scriptures  has  been  a  part 
of  the  procedure  at  every  annual  meeting  of  the  corporation 
thereafter. 

A  typical  worker  for  the  House  of  Mercy  was  Mrs.  Thomas 
F.  Plunkett,  who  was  for  thirty  years  president  of  the  institu- 
tion. Harriette  Merrick  Hodge  was  born  at  Hadley,  Massa- 
chusetts, February  sixth,  1826;  and  in  1847  she  became  the 
second  wife  of  Thomas  F.  Plunkett  of  Pittsfield.  When  the 
project  for  a  local  village  hospital  assumed  definite  shape,  it 
found  in  Mrs.  Plunkett  a  woman  peculiarly  adapted  to  assist  in 
its  advancement.  Not  only  was  she  by  nature  endowed,  like 
many  of  her  associates,  with  a  broad  conception  of  Christian 
charity,  and  with  that  feminine  power  of  accomplishment  which 
in  old  New  England  used  to  be  called  "faculty",  but  also  she  had 
already  learned  more  than  the  average  layman  knew  in  those 
days  about  hygiene  and  sanitation.  She  was  enabled  to  bring 
to  the  use  of  the  House  of  Mercy  an  amount  of  technical  knowl- 
edge infrequently  possessed  by  an  elective  officer  of  such  cor- 
porations. Neither  this  knowledge,  however,  nor  her  executive 
energy  was  the  chief  value  of  Mrs.  Plunkett's  service  to  the  hos- 
pital. She  had  an  eager  and  fertile  mind,  which  expressed  itself 
by  vivacious  speech  and  facile  writing.  In  any  field  of  general  or 
personal  appeal,  her  efficiency  was  uncommonly  productive. 
Few  of  her  countless  petitions  in  behalf  of  the  hospital  failed  to 
excite  attention  somewhere  or  to  awaken  in  someone  the  desire 
somehow  to  help;  and  no  aid  seems  ever  to  have  been  so  slight 
as  to  escape  her  notice. 


THE  HOUSE  OF  MERCY  217 

Her  devotion  to  the  House  of  Mercy  sprang  from  a  catholic 
sense  of  humanity,  of  which  Pittsfield  saw  other  evidence. 
Both  the  variety  and  the  vigor  of  her  interests  were  out  of  the 
ordinary.  But  it  was  with  men  and  women  whose  mission  was, 
in  any  degree,  the  alleviation  and  prevention  of  physical  distress 
that  Mrs.  Plunkett  associated  herself  with  a  sympathy  especially 
profound.  She  could  easily  be  enhsted  in  any  philanthropic 
crusade,  large  or  small,  of  which  the  object  was  to  combat  disease 
or  needless  discomfort,  and  her  researches  in  the  homely  science 
of  household  hygiene  were  widely  published.  Doctors,  and 
trained  nurses,  and  medical  students  found  her  a  warm  and  under- 
standing friend,  while  the  women  who  worked  so  loyally  with 
her  for  the  House  of  Mercy  were  cognizant  no  less  of  her  affection 
for  them  and  their  cause  than  of  her  capable  leadership. 

Mrs.  Plunkett  died  at  Pittsfield,  December  twenty-sixth, 
1906. 

As  Mrs.  Plunkett  represented  the  type  of  Pittsfield  woman- 
hood which  founded,  and  upheld,  and  upholds  the  House  of 
Mercy,  so  was  the  type  of  Pittsfield  physicians  who  charitably 
labored  and  labor  for  it  represented  by  Dr.  J.  F.  A.  Adams,  and 
Dr.  Franklin  K.  Paddock.  Dr.  Paddock  was  born  December 
nineteenth,  1841,  at  Hamilton,  New  York.  The  vocation  of  med- 
icine had  been  followed  by  his  ancestors,  and  thus  with  inherited 
ambition  and  aptitude  he  was  graduated  in  1864  from  the  Berk- 
shire Medical  Institute  at  Pittsfield.  Immediately  upon  gradua- 
tion, he  began  in  Pittsfield  the  practice  of  his  calling,  and  there 
continued  it  without  intermission  until  his  death  on  July  twenty- 
sixth,  1901.  He  was  married  in  1867  to  Miss  Anna  Todd,  daugh- 
ter of  Rev.  John  Todd. 

Dr.  Paddock's  industry  was  incessant  and  unsparing;  and 
although  its  goal  seemed  to  be  the  performance  of  a  daily  duty 
to  mankind,  rather  than  the  extension  of  prestige,  it  achieved 
for  his  skill,  particularly  in  surgery,  a  far-spread  reputation. 
His  notable  operative  facility  was  innate  and  was  backed  by  a 
fearless  and  imperturbable  temperament,  and  this  facility  had 
been  so  cultivated,  even  in  the  pressing  routine  of  a  large  general 
practice,  by  alert  observation  and  patient  independence  of 
thought  that  Dr.  Paddock  became  recognized  by  his  professional 


218  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

fellows  in  New  England  and  New  York  as  a  brilliant  and  pro- 
gressive surgeon.  He  was  twice,  in  1894  and  in  1895,  the  presi- 
dent of  the  Massachusetts  Medical  Society,  and  he  appears  to 
have  had  opportunities  to  establish  himself  with  secure  distinc- 
tion in  fields  where  a  larger  measure  of  renown  and  emolument 
might  have  been  obtained  than  in  a  Berkshire  valley. 

That  he  did  not  strive  to  do  so  was  characteristic  of  him,  and 
of  his  sort.  Behind  the  modernity  of  his  attainments  was  his 
ancestral  spirit — the  spirit  of  the  old-fashioned  country  doctors, 
close  to  the  hearts,  and  rejoicing  to  be  close  to  the  hearts,  of  the 
people  among  whom  they  toiled.  The  lonely  hill  roads  knew 
him  well,  in  darkness,  or  in  sunshine,  or  with  the  wind  and  the 
storm  in  his  teeth;  and  for  nearly  forty  years  his  broad  and 
important  ministry  was  maintained  with  undiminished  fervor. 
A  modest  and  gentle-hearted  man,  he  was  at  the  same  time  posi- 
tive, outspoken,  intolerant  of  avoidable  uncertainty.  In  the 
eyes  of  the  community  he  stood  for  rugged  and  brisk  directness, 
both  of  purpose  and  expression. 

Dr.  Paddock's  practical  humanity  and  vocational  zeal  com- 
bined to  make  him  an  earnest  and  powerful  coadjutor  in  the 
work  of  the  House  of  Mercy.  He  had  much  to  do,  indeed,  even 
with  the  inception  of  the  undertaking,  and  brought  to  Pittsfield, 
after  a  visit  to  Europe  in  1874,  a  stimulating  account  of  the  cot- 
tage hospitals  in  England.  From  its  beginning,  the  House  of 
Mercy  enjoyed  the  continuous  benefit  of  his  intimate  connection 
with  it,  of  his  professional  ability,  and  of  his  personal  influence 
throughout  the  county.  By  means  of  his  large  acquaintance 
among  distinguished  physicians  in  places  remote  from  Pittsfield, 
he  caused  the  House  of  Mercy  and  its  training  school  for  nurses 
to  be  widely  and  favorably  known,  and  to  profit  by  the  advice 
and  occasionally  the  actual  services  of  expert  practitioners, 
whose  interest  might  not  have  been  obtained  without  him. 
Finally,  the  constant  readiness  in  which  he  held  himself  freely  to 
do  hospital  duty,  his  cheery  companionship,  his  ardor  in  the  task 
of  healing,  were  an  inspiration  to  whose  strength  the  hospital 
nurses  and  the  members  of  the  medical  staff  often  bore  uncon- 
scious testimony. 

In  the  foregoing  pages  we  have  seen  how  closely  also  the 


THE  HOUSE  OF  MERCY  219 

name  of  Dr.  J.  F.  A.  Adams  was  identified  with  the  early  growth 
of  the  hospital.  Dr.  John  Forster  Alleyne  Adams  was  born  at 
Boston,  March  twentieth,  1844.  The  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War 
interrupted  his  professional  education  at  Harvard;  and  the 
young  student  sought  service  in  the  medical  department  of  the 
navy  and  performed  important  duty  on  Farragut's  fleet.  Re- 
turning to  college  after  the  war,  he  received  his  degree  of  Doctor 
of  Medicine  from  Harvard  in  1866.  He  spent  a  year  abroad  in 
study  at  the  great  hospitals  of  Vienna  and  Paris,  and  thus  with  an 
equipment  of  experience  somewhat  uncommon  for  a  youthful 
physician  in  those  days,  he  came  to  Pittsfield  in  1867,  and  soon 
formed  with  Dr.  Franklin  K.  Paddock  a  partnership  which,  al- 
though formally  discontinued  after  fifteen  years,  remained  a 
practical  association  of  purpose  and  effort  until  Dr.  Paddock's 
death.  Dr.  Adams  exerted  a  unique  intellectual  force  in  Pitts- 
field  all  his  life.  His  wit,  his  play  of  philosophy  and  humor,  il- 
luminated meetings  of  literary,  scientific,  or  charitable  societies; 
and  his  pleasantries  were  quoted  probably  with  greater  relish  than 
those  of  any  other  Pittsfield  man  of  his  day.  His  voice  was  crisp, 
and  his  eyes  possessed  a  peculiar  sort  of  smiling,  kindly  brightness 
which  the  years  did  not  dim.  A  scholarly  reader,  both  of  general 
and  professional  literature,  he  had  the  art  of  packing  the  more 
elaborately  expressed  thoughts  of  others  into  brisk,  pithy,  memor- 
able phrases.  He  loved  books;  and  he  was  a  faithful  trustee  and 
president  of  the  Berkshire  Athenaeum  and  Museum. 

The  spirit  of  Christian  philanthropy  was  strong  in  Dr. 
Adams.  He  was  ever  ready  to  devote  the  product  of  his  study 
and  experience  to  the  good  of  the  community;  he  labored  on  the 
town's  board  of  health  when  such  labor  was  not  popular;  and 
he  strove  always,  by  speech,  pen,  and  act,  to  show  people  how  to 
protect  themselves  against  disease.  He  was  a  scientific  investi- 
gator, who  knew  how  to  make  the  result  of  investigation  plain  to 
the  layman.  His  services  to  the  House  of  Mercy  were  given 
long  and  unstintedly.  After  age  had  called  him  to  rest  and  re- 
tirement, he  undertook,  with  the  zeal  of  a  younger  man,  to  es- 
tablish the  anti-tuberculosis  sanatorium  in  Pittsfield,  and  he  was 
for  five  years  president  of  its  sustaining  association.  In  the  re- 
ligious, charitable,  and  parochial  activities  of  his  church,  St. 


220  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Stephen's,  he  was  a  constant  and  devout  sharer,  serving  for 
many  years  as  its  senior  warden. 

Dr.  Adams  died  at  Pittsfield,  July  twenty-seventh,  1914. 
In  his  death  the  medical  profession  of  the  county  suffered,  and 
recognized,  a  singular  loss,  for  he  had  endeared  himself  to  its 
members,  as  he  had  to  the  citizens  of  Pittsfield,  by  his  adherence 
to  the  ideals  of  a  cultured  gentleman,  proud  of  the  work  given 
him  to  do  in  the  world  and  cheerily  desirous  to  do  it  well. 

Another  friend  of  great  value  to  the  House  of  Mercy  in  its 
youthful  days  was  Dr.  W.  E.  Vermilye,  who  came  to  Pittsfield  in 
1871  and  ceased  to  be  a  resident  of  the  town  in  1886.  He  was  a 
native  of  New  York  City,  where  he  was  born  in  1828.  Dr.  Ver- 
milye was  a  courtly,  kind-hearted,  and  high-principled  man,  and 
a  helpful  officer  of  St.  Stephen's  Church.  He  died  at  Flushing, 
New  York,  February  second,  1888. 


CHAPTER  XV 
CHARITIES  AND  BENEFACTIONS 

AS  the  women  who  inaugurated  the  House  of  Mercy  were 
American  pioneers  in  providing  public  hospital  relief 
outside  the  large  cities,  so  the  early  managers  of  the 
Union  for  Home  Work,  formed  in  Pittsfield  in  1878,  were  among 
the  first  practical  philanthropists  in  this  country  to  establish 
successfully  a  central  organization  of  which  the  purpose  was  to 
carry  on  all  the  various  charitable  works  of  a  community.  A 
similar  association  existed  in  Buffalo  in  1877,  and  an  experiment 
of  the  same  sort  was  on  trial  in  Hartford,  Connecticut,  at  about 
the  same  time;  but  in  towns  of  no  greater  population  than  Pitts- 
field  the  centralization  of  charity  was,  in  1878,  a  novel  under- 
taking. 

The  origin  of  the  Union  for  Home  Work  was  inspired  by  Rev. 
Jonathan  L.  Jenkins.  When  he  founded  it,  he  had  been  a  resi- 
dent of  the  town  for  scarcely  a  year;  and  he  could  look  at  local 
social  problems  with  the  clear  vision  of  a  newcomer.  Charity 
in  Pittsfield,  both  public  and  private,  had  been  loosely  adminis- 
tered. The  selectmen,  charged  with  aiding  the  poor  outside  the 
almshouse  at  the  expense  of  the  town,  had  little  time,  and  some 
of  them  had  occasionally  little  willingness,  perhaps,  for  due  inves- 
tigation. The  fields  of  the  various  charitable  societies  over- 
lapped at  some  points,  while  at  others  they  left  intervals  of  un- 
covered ground.  Moreover,  because  of  the  comparatively  small 
size  of  the  community,  they  were  bound  to  depend  generally  upon 
the  same  supporters;  a  condition  that  prohibited  that  division  of 
philanthropic  interests  which  is  possible  only  in  large  cities  and 
which  is  advantageous  alike  to  those  who  give  and  to  those  in 
need. 

Under  a  name  selected  with  wisdom  in  its  avoidance  of  the 
word  "charity",  the  Union  for  Home  Work  began  its  helpful 


222  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

operations  in  1878  with  a  board  of  management  of  twenty-five 
men  and  women,  five  being  chosen  by  each  of  five  churches. 
The  Union  was  supported  by  donations,  which  were  stimulated 
by  the  annual  appeal  of  a  public  meeting.  A  superintendent  was 
employed;  and  headquarters  were  soon  occupied  in  a  house  on 
Dunham  Street,  which  were  in  1883  removed  to  the  Read  building 
at  the  corner  of  North  and  Fenn  Streets.  Originally  the  chief 
functions  of  the  association  were  to  distribute  charitable  assist- 
ance, to  find  work  for  the  indigent,  and  to  advance  religious  in- 
terests. These  were  soon  broadened.  Indeed,  a  noteworthy 
merit  of  the  institution  was  flexibility.  After  a  few  months,  for 
example,  the  religious  function,  at  first  strongly  emphasized, 
was  discarded;  and  during  the  earliest  five  years  of  its  existence 
the  Union  conducted,  besides  a  bureau  of  employment  and  of 
charity  distribution,  a  sewing  school,  an  evening  school,  coffee 
rooms,  and  a  series  of  mothers'  meetings.  In  the  same  period, 
the  annual  number  of  visits  of  investigation  made  by  the  super- 
intendent increased  from  700  to  2,500,  and  the  number  of  volun- 
teer district  visitors  from  thirty-three  to  fifty.  The  selectmen  for 
two  years  consigned  to  the  Union  a  part  of  their  official  work  of 
"outside  relief",  and  for  the  next  two  years  the  whole  of  it, 
work  which  involved  the  assistance  of  about  sixty  dependent 
families.  Then  came  a  rupture  and  a  stormy  town  meeting; 
and  the  Union  ceased  to  be  the  town  almoner. 

The  Union  was  incorporated  in  1887,  and  a  board  of  trustees, 
a  body  separate  from  the  board  of  managers,  was  empowered  to 
hold  its  property.  The  organization  had  by  that  time  initiated 
and  assumed  the  charge  of  several  additional  philanthropies, 
such  as  a  club  for  working  girls,  a  small  and  elementary  vocational 
school  for  boys,  and  the  care  of  poor  children  sent  from  the  great 
cities  to  Berkshire  for  a  fortnight's  playtime.  In  1889  the  newly 
established  Berkshire  County  Home  for  Aged  Women  became 
allied  with  the  Union  for  Home  Work;  and  the  latter  removed  its 
headquarters  to  the  building  erected  on  South  Street  for  the  use 
of  the  two  organizations  by  the  sons  of  Zenas  Marshall  Crane. 

This  alliance  proved  to  be  too  complicated  and  was  severed 
in  1890.  The  Union,  however,  retained  its  rooms  in  the  South 
Street  building  until  1895,  when  it  occupied  the  house  on  Fenn 


CHARITIES  AND  BENEFACTIONS  223 

Street  numbered  119,  which  it  was  enabled  to  purchase  by  the 
sale  to  the  Home  for  Aged  Women  of  its  interest  in  the  property 
of  the  Home.  At  the  same  time,  a  general  reorganization  was  ef- 
fected. Established  in  its  new  quarters,  the  Union  conducted  a 
sewing  school,  a  cooking  school,  a  day  nursery,  a  fruit  and  flower 
mission  for  poor  invalids,  a  boys'  club,  and  the  administration  of 
a  "fresh  air  fund"  for  the  benefit  of  New  York  children;  super- 
vised a  reading  and  coffee  room  on  Depot  Street;  and  maintained 
employment  and  charitable  aid  departments.  The  Pittsfield 
Kindergarten  Association  opened  the  first  free  kindergarten  in 
the  city  in  the  house  of  the  Union  on  Fenn  Street. 

Perhaps  the  Union  in  later  years  attempted  to  do  too  much. 
Perhaps  the  dual  organization,  with  a  board  of  trustees  and  a 
separate  board  of  managers,  was  cumbersome.  At  any  rate,  it 
is  obvious  that  soon  after  1900  the  increasing  size  of  the  city 
caused  philanthropic  people  to  separate  more  and  more  into  de- 
tached groups,  each  with  a  particular  interest.  The  Union  for 
Home  Work  ceased  to  be  active  in  1911,  having  done  good  service 
for  thirty-three  years  by  enlisting  the  support  of  hundreds  of 
generous  men  and  women,  by  introducing  Pittsfield  to  many 
valuable  agencies  of  charity,  then  new  to  the  community,  and 
by  cultivating  a  spirit  of  co-operative  kindness.  Founded  when 
such  organizations  were  rare  in  this  country,  the  Union  was  not 
only  a  benefit  but  a  distinction  to  the  town. 

Upon  the  long  list  of  presidents  of  the  Union  are  the  names 
of  Rev.  J.  L.  Jenkins,  Rev.  George  W.  Gile,  Rev.  W.  W.  Newton, 
Rev.  George  Skene,  Rev.  Orville  Coates,  Rev.  Carl  G.  Horst, 
Rev.  I.  Chipman  Smart,  Walter  F.  Hawkins,  Joseph  Tucker, 
Rev.  Thomas  W.  Nickerson,  and  John  M.  Stevenson.  The 
first  superintendent  was  Theodore  Bartlett,  and  his  successors 
were  George  E.  Sprong,  Rev.  George  H.  C.  Viney,  and  Mrs.  J.  A. 
Maxim. 

The  Union  and  its  successors  in  various  fields  of  philanthropy 
supplemented  the  beneficent  activity  of  many  charitable  societies 
in  the  different  churches,  of  which  no  enumeration  or  description 
can  here  be  attempted.  Nor  can  our  pages  venture  to  relate  in 
detail  the  philanthropic  work  performed  by  local  branches  of 
several  organizations  having  a  national  scope,  like  the  Ethel 


224  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Division  and  the  Pittsfield  branch  of  the  Red  Cross.  It  is  to 
certain  charities  belonging  more  distinctively  to  the  city  that  the 
present  chapter  purposes  to  direct  attention. 

When  the  Union  for  Home  Work  was  organized  in  1878,  its 
officers  suggested  several  charitable  enterprises  which  might  be 
developed,  and  among  these  was  mentioned  the  establishment  in 
the  future  of  a  home  for  aged  women.  Ten  years  later,  this 
project  was  generously  made  possible.  In  1888,  a  graceful  brick 
building,  designed  for  the  uses  both  of  the  Union  and  of  a  home 
for  aged  women,  was  erected  on  South  Street  by  the  sons  of 
Zenas  Marshall  Crane  of  Dalton,  in  compliance  with  the  wishes 
and  to  the  memory  of  their  father,  who  died  in  1887. 

Early  in  June,  1889,  the  building  was  occupied  by  the  Berk- 
shire County  Home  for  Aged  Women  and  by  the  Union  for  Home 
Work.  It  was  then  announced  that  "the  Union  for  Home  Work 
is  the  corporation  holding  the  real  estate,  and  its  Board  of  Mana- 
gers elects  the  Board  of  Control  of  the  Home,  but  has  no  further 
connection  with  the  management  of  the  institution."  In  1890, 
however,  this  arrangement  was  altered,  because  of  confusion  re- 
sulting from  the  alliance  of  a  local  with  a  county  organization, 
and  the  Home  for  Aged  Women  was  separately  incorporated. 
The  institution  originally  was  not  endowed,  and  did  not  offer  to 
support  its  beneficiaries  entirely  without  cost  to  them.  The  ex- 
penses were  paid  by  annual  subscriptions.  The  first  occupants 
of  the  Home  were  the  matron  and  the  two  former  inmates  of  a 
modest  establishment  of  a  similar  character  on  Elm  Street,  which 
had  been  conducted  for  two  years  under  the  auspices  of  Rev. 
W.  W.  Newton  and  had  been  named  by  him  "Naomi  Home." 

The  inmates  of  the  Berkshire  County  Home  for  Aged  Women 
have  numbered  about  twenty  each  year.  A  considerable  endow- 
ment fund  has  been  accumulated,  and  more  than  three  hundred 
men  and  women  compose  the  sustaining  corporation.  The  first 
president  of  the  Board  of  Control,  Mrs.  James  B.  Crane,  was  suc- 
ceeded in  1905  by  Mrs.  Zenas  Crane,  who  is  now  the  president. 
The  institution,  neither  a  hospital  nor  an  almshouse,  has  filled  a 
place  among  the  philanthropies  of  the  city  which  in  most  com- 
munities is  vacant. 

Zenas  Marshall  Crane,  whose  wishes  were  followed  by  his 


CHARITIES  AND  BENEFACTIONS  225 

sons  when  they  placed  the  institution  at  the  disposal  of  the  people 
of  the  county,  was  a  native  and  resident  of  Dalton,  v/here  he  was 
born  January  twenty-first,  1815,  and  where  he  died,  March 
twelfth,  1887;  and  an  account  of  his  honorable  life  and  character 
belongs  more  properly  to  the  history  of  that  town  than  to  a 
history  of  Pittsfield.  It  may  be  said  of  him  here,  however,  that 
his  many  philanthropies  were  not  confined  in  their  operation  to  a 
single  community,  and  that  he  was  conspicuous  throughout 
Berkshire  for  his  support  of  causes  of  charity,  education,  and  re- 
ligion. His  humanitarianism  was  at  once  tender  and  firm,  nor 
did  it  lack  the  quality  of  high  courage,  for  he  was  an  early  member 
of  the  "Free  Soil"  political  party  in  1848,  when  publicly  to  attack 
slavery  required  no  little  boldness. 

It  has  been  mentioned  that  the  house  of  the  Union  for  Home 
Work  on  Fenn  Street  provided  a  room  for  the  city's  first  free 
kindergarten.  This  school  was  supported  and  conducted  by  the 
Pittsfield  Kindergarten  Association,  organized  in  August,  1895, 
with  a  membership  of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty.  The  kin- 
dergarten was  opened  in  the  following  September.  It  remained 
for  a  year  on  Fenn  Street,  and  then  was  moved  to  a  room  in  the 
Solomon  Lincoln  Russell  schoolhouse.  In  1898,  the  room  in  the 
schoolhouse  being  no  longer  available,  the  city  government  made 
a  small  appropriation  for  renting  a  room  elsewhere  on  Peck's 
Road  for  the  kindergarten  conducted  by  the  association,  whose 
work,  although  on  a  small  scale,  was  so  excellent  and  so  well- 
advertised  as  to  result  in  the  adoption  of  kindergartens  as  a  part 
of  the  public  school  system  by  the  school  committee  in  1902. 
The  association  then  turned  over  its  equipment  to  the  city  and 
was  dissolved.  The  prominent  officers  had  been  Mrs.  William  L. 
Adam,  Mrs.  George  H.  Kinnell,  and  Mrs.  Walter  F.  Hawkins. 
Two  teachers  were  employed,  and  about  $1,000  was  raised  an- 
nually for  running  expenses. 

The  organization  of  the  Pittsfield  Anti-tuberculosis  Associa- 
tion in  1908  was  due  in  chief  to  the  benevolent  spirit  of  Dr.  J.  F. 
A.  Adams  and  to  his  enthusiastic  devotion  to  the  task  of  healing 
and  preventing  disease.  The  by-laws  of  the  association  de- 
clared its  objects  to  be  "to  promote  a  careful  study  of  conditions 
concerning  tuberculosis  in  Pittsfield;    to  inform  the  community 


226  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

as  to  causes  and  prevention  of  tuberculosis;  to  secure  adequate 
provision  for  the  care  of  tuberculosis  patients  in  their  houses, 
and  in  hospitals  and  sanatoria;  and  to  own,  conduct  and  main- 
tain such  hospitals  and  sanatoria."  Money  was  contributed 
sufficient  for  renting  a  farm  of  about  forty-five  acres  near  Lebanon 
Avenue,  on  the  southwestern  outskirts  of  the  city,  and  for  con- 
verting the  farmhouse  to  the  uses  of  a  sanatorium,  which  was 
placed  in  charge  of  a  matron  and  nurse.  The  property  was  pur- 
chased by  the  association  in  1912;  and  soon  afterward  a  legacy 
from  Dr.  F.  S.  Coolidge  of  Pittsfield  provided  for  the  erection  of  a 
hospital.  The  announcement  was  made  in  1915  that  the  new 
hospital  would  be  called  the  Frederic  Shurtleff  Coolidge  Me- 
morial House  and  that  it  had  been  endowed  by  Mrs.  Coolidge  in 
the  sum  of  $100,000.  The  association  now  owns  sixty-three  acres 
of  land,  and  its  two  hospitals  can  care  for  thirty  patients. 

Dr.  Coolidge  was  born  in  Boston  in  1867,  was  graduated  from 
Harvard  College  in  1887,  and,  after  receiving  a  medical  degree 
from  the  same  institution,  began  the  practice  of  his  profession  in 
Chicago.  There  he  was  married  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Sprague. 
On  May  fifteenth,  1915,  he  died  in  New  York.  The  later  years 
of  his  life  were  spent  in  Pittsfield;  and,  although  ill  health  had 
enforced  his  retirement  from  active  practice,  he  gave  spirited 
and  valuable  service  to  the  House  of  Mercy  and  effectively  co- 
operated with  Dr.  Adams  in  launching  the  Anti-tuberculosis 
Association. 

Dr.  J.  F.  A.  Adams  was  the  first  president,  and  he  was  suc- 
ceeded in  1914  by  Dr.  Henry  Colt.  The  hospital  cares  annually 
for  about  fifty  patients;  and  the  current  expenses  have  necessarily 
been  met  in  great  part  by  current  donations  and  by  the  yearly 
subscriptions  of  the  members  of  the  association,  of  whom  there 
were  813  in  1916. 

One  of  the  many  undertakings  of  the  Union  for  Home  Work, 
between  1895  and  1900,  had  been  to  provide  a  daytime  home 
for  the  infant  children  of  working  mothers.  This  was  the  object 
sought  by  the  organization,  in  1905,  of  the  Pittsfield  Day  Nursery 
Association.  The  first  president  was  Mrs.  William  H.  Eaton, 
whose  successors  have  been  Mrs.  A.  M.  Cowles,  Miss  Louise 
Weston,  Mrs.  J.  McA.  Vance,  and  Mrs.  Clarence  Stephens.     A 


CHARITIES  AND  BENEFACTIONS  227 

house  on  the  north  side  of  Columbus  Avenue,  near  Francis  Ave- 
nue, was  opened  as  a  day  nursery  by  this  association  in  February, 
1906,  A  few  years  afterward,  the  nursery  was  removed  to  the 
house  on  Fenn  Street  formerly  occupied  by  the  Union  for  Home 
Work.  In  1908  the  Pittsfield  Day  Nursery  Association  was  in- 
corporated. The  number  of  children  cared  for  at  the  nursery  of 
course  varies  greatly  from  day  to  day,  the  aggregate  for  the  year 
being  at  present  about  5,000.  The  association  is  unsupported  by 
any  endowment  fund,  and  is  dependent  upon  the  subscriptions  of 
its  one  hundred  members,  active  and  honorary,  and  upon  the  pro- 
ceeds of  benefit  entertainments. 

The  provision  of  public  playgrounds,  equipped  and  expertly 
supervised,  for  the  boys  and  girls  of  the  city  was  initiated  in  1910 
by  a  few  citizens,  who  obtained  from  the  municipal  government 
an  appropriation  of  $300  for  this  purpose  and  the  privilege  of 
trying  their  experiment  on  the  grounds  of  the  Plunkett  School 
during  the  summer  vacation.  As  a  committee  in  charge,  the 
mayor  appointed  sixteen  men  who  had  been  nominated  by  the 
Board  of  Trade,  the  Father  Mathew  Total  Abstinence  Society, 
the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  and  the  Boys'  Club, 
each  organization  naming  four  members. 

In  1911,  this  committee  was  incorporated  as  the  Park  and 
Playground  Association,  and  the  members  borrowed  sufficient 
money  on  their  personal  obligations  to  purchase  the  plot  of  land 
on  Columbus  Avenue,  now  called  the  William  Pitt  Playground. 
The  city  government  appropriated  $500  for  maintenance,  and 
$1,000  was  raised  by  subscription.  With  this  money  the  associa- 
tion, in  1911,  opened  and  conducted  three  playgrounds,  one  on 
the  common,  another  at  Springside,  and  a  third  on  Columbus 
Avenue.  Since  that  year  the  development  of  the  system  has  been 
rapid.  The  annual  municipal  appropriation  has  been  increased 
to  $3,000.  In  1912  and  again  in  1913,  the  association  bought 
land  at  Springside.  Additional  playgrounds  were  opened  near 
Pontoosuc  Lake  and  at  the  Russell  factory  village.  In  1915  the 
city  purchased  all  the  land  owned  by  the  association.  The  out- 
lay for  maintenance  and  direction,  however,  has  been  met  only 
partly  by  the  annual  appropriation  from  the  city  treasury,  and 
popular  subscription  has  been  necessary. 


228  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Although  the  chief  purpose  of  the  association  has  been  to  give 
to  Pittsfield  children  a  broad  opportunity  for  healthful,  safe 
amusement,  large  classes  at  the  playgrounds  have  been  attended 
in  sewing,  basketry,  and  clay  modeling.  Instructors  of  folk 
dancing  have  found  many  pupils.  The  number  of  trained  super- 
visors employed  by  the  association  has  increased  to  about  thirty. 
In  1915  the  total  attendance  of  children  at  the  different  play- 
grounds during  the  summer  was  approximately  90,000.  The 
presidents  of  the  Park  and  Playground  Association  have  been 
J.  Ward  Lewis  and  Charles  L.  Hibbard. 

The  Hillcrest  Surgical  Hospital  was  incorporated  under  the 
laws  of  the  Commonwealth  as  a  public  charitable  institution  on 
July  ninth,  1908.  The  hospital  had  then  been  conducted  for  a 
few  months  as  a  private  enterprise  by  Dr.  Charles  H.  Richardson, 
who  shared  with  several  Pittsfield  doctors  and  other  citizens  the 
opinion  that  the  existing  public  hospital  accommodations  in  the 
county  were  unable  to  satisfy  the  increasing  demand  for  them. 
The  number  of  patients  in  the  hospital  when  the  institution  was 
incorporated  was  twenty-four  and  the  building  utilized  was  at 
the  south  corner  of  Springside  Avenue  and  North  Street. 

The  usefulness  of  the  new  hospital  to  the  people  of  the  city, 
and  indeed  of  the  county,  was  demonstrated  almost  immediately. 
During  the  first  two  years  of  its  existence,  1,058  patients  were 
cared  for;  of  these,  352  were  classified  as  free,  or  paying  only  in 
part  for  hospital  care.  The  facilities  were  increased  by  the  addi- 
tion of  two  buildings,  one  of  which  was  used  as  a  nurses'  home; 
three  hospital  rooms  were  endowed;  and  the  donations  received 
amounted  to  nearly  $20,000.  A  post-graduate  course  of  instruc- 
tion in  surgery  was  offered  to  nurses  having  diplomas  from  other 
institutions;  and  in  1909  a  full  course  training  school  was  or- 
ganized. 

During  the  hospital's  third  year,  its  efficiency  was  enlarged 
by  changing  it  from  a  solely  surgical  to  a  general  hospital,  re- 
ceiving medical  as  well  as  operative  cases.  At  the  same  time  the 
word  "surgical"  was  dropped  from  the  corporate  name,  and  the 
post-graduate  nurses'  course  was  abandoned,  because  of  the 
growth  of  the  scope  of  the  regular  training  school.  Under  the 
broadened  policy,  the  institution  continued  to  show  gain  both  in 


CHARITIES  AND  BENEFACTIONS  229 

patronage  and  in  the  performance  of  charitable  service.  The 
executive  committee  in  July,  1915,  reported  that  during  the  pre- 
ceding twelve  months  "the  cost  of  the  charity  work  done  during 
the  year  was  $4,632.31,  or  $3,741.81  more  than  was  received  in 
donations.  Notwithstanding  this  fact  the  hospital  is  able  to 
show  itself  free  from  debt."  The  admissions  to  the  hospital  in 
that  period  numbered  698,  and  there  was  a  well-patronized  out- 
patient department. 

The  first  president  of  the  corporation  was  Walter  F,  Hawkins, 
who  has  since  been  re-elected  annually.  The  treasurer,  serving 
for  the  same  period,  has  been  Dr.  Charles  H.  Richardson.  The 
directors  were  chosen  from  the  county  at  large;  Pittsfield  citizens 
upon  the  earlier  boards  were  Rev.  Werner  L.  Genzmer,  William 
A.  Burns,  Luke  J.  Minahan,  Dr.  William  L.  Tracy,  Walter  F. 
Hawkins,  Ambrose  Clogher,  John  White,  Dr.  Charles  H.  Rich- 
ardson, Henry  J.  Ryan,  and  Leo  Zander.  A  ladies'  auxiliary 
association,  of  which  the  purpose  was  the  promotion  of  the  benev- 
olent work  of  Hillcrest  Hospital,  was  formed  in  1911.  The  presi- 
dent was  Mrs.  John  H.  Noble,  and  the  number  of  members  in 
1915  was  125.  In  the  same  year,  there  were  109  honorary  mem- 
bers of  the  hospital  corporation,  representative  of  many  Berk- 
shire towns.  In  common  with  Pittsfield's  other  charitable  enter- 
prises contemporaneous  with  it,  the  hospital  was  steadily  con- 
fronted by  the  problem  of  supplying  a  public  need  with  dis- 
proportionate resources,  and,  like  them,  it  relied  more  than  is 
usual  upon  the  constant  efforts  of  its  philanthropic  supporters, 
and  upon  especially  watchful  management. 

The  professional  staffs  of  the  hospital  were  from  the  first 
under  the  leadership  of  Dr.  Richardson,  whose  distinction  in  the 
practice  of  surgery  was  an  important  resource  of  the  institution, 
and  among  his  associates  at  Hillcrest  of  long  service  were  Drs. 
William  J.  Mercer,  Stephen  C.  Burton,  William  L.  Tracy,  A.  W\ 
Sylvester,  John  A.  Sullivan,  and  R.  A.  Woodruff.  The  super- 
intendents of  nurses  and  of  the  training  school  have  been  Miss 
Marion  G.  Keffer  and  Miss  J.  F.  Smith. 

Charitable  care  of  the  indigent  sick  at  their  homes,  which  had 
been  undertaken  for  several  years  by  professional  nurses  in 
Pittsfield,  formally  enlisted  public  support  in  1908,  when  the 


230  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Pittsfield  Visiting  Nurse  Association  was  organized.  The  ob- 
jects were  declared  to  be  "to  provide  for  the  aid  of  those  other- 
wise unable  to  secure  assistance  in  time  of  illness,  to  promote 
cleanliness,  and  to  teach  the  proper  care  of  the  sick."  A  trained 
nurse  was  employed,  who  devoted  all  her  time  to  the  work  of  the 
association  and  who  soon  found  assistant  nurses  to  be  necessary. 
In  1915  the  association,  at  the  request  of  the  school  committee, 
assumed  the  task  of  instructing  pupils  of  the  public  schools  in 
personal  hygiene  and  of  helping  their  parents  by  such  instruction 
when  needed.  For  the  year  ending  in  March,  1916,  the  number 
of  visits  made  by  the  nurses  of  the  association  was  2,820. 

The  Pittsfield  Visiting  Nurse  Association  has  been  supported 
almost  entirely  by  yearly  gifts  and  subscriptions.  The  presi- 
dents have  been  DeWitt  Bruce,  Mrs.  Henry  R.  Russell,  Mrs. 
Charles  H.  Wilson,  Mrs.  John  L.  Robbins,  and  Mrs.  Robert  D. 
Bardwell. 

It  has  been  said  that,  before  the  establishment  of  the  Visiting 
Nurse  Association,  the  work  of  charitable  nursing  among  the 
poor  of  the  city  had  been  carried  on  for  a  number  of  years  by  the 
professional  nurses  of  Pittsfield  of  their  own  initiative  and  at  the 
generous  expenditure  of  their  time,  skill,  and  labor.  Most  of 
them  were  graduates  of  the  Bishop  Memorial  Training  School. 
The  advantage  of  skilled  nursing  and  its  philanthropic  as  well  as 
its  practical  mission  were  thus  first  fully  proved  to  Pittsfield  by 
that  institution,  the  founder  of  which  did  more  than  merely  pro- 
vide for  the  technical  education  of  trained  nurses.  Another 
effect  of  his  gift  was  to  add  the  provision  of  free,  skilled  care  of 
the  sick  at  their  homes  to  the  list  of  local  charities. 

Henry  W.  Bishop  was  born  in  Lenox,  June  second,  1829,  and 
died  at  Seabright,  New  Jersey,  September  twenty -eighth,  1913. 
He  was  graduated  in  1850  from  Amherst  College,  and  in  1856 
began  the  practice  of  law  in  Chicago,  where  he  gained  professional 
and  civic  prominence.  For  Berkshire,  however,  he  always  re- 
tained the  warmest  affection;  and  after  his  marriage  to  Miss 
Jessie  Pomeroy,  daughter  of  Robert  Pomeroy,  he  made  Pittsfield 
his  summer  home.  Mr.  Bishop  was  a  cultivated,  kindly  man,  of 
rare  social  graces  and  strong  friendships.  The  school  for  nurses 
on  North  Street  was  founded  by  him  in  memory  of  Henry  W. 


CHARITIES  AND  BENEFACTIONS  231 

Bishop  3rd,  a  son  by  his  first  marriage,  who  died  while  a  student 
at  WilUams  College,  In  an  address  at  the  dedication  of  the 
building  in  1889,  Mr.  Bishop  made  a  touching  allusion  to  the 
impulse  which  prompted  his  gift. 

"The  last  year  of  my  son's  life  was  full  of  weariness  and  pain, 
very  patiently  endured.  During  his  illness,  I  came  to  know  and 
appreciate  the  inestimable  value  of  trained  scientific  nursing. 
He  left  me  just  as  he  was  entering  into  manhood,  before  he  could 
make  for  himself  a  name  to  be  remembered.  Naturally,  I  de- 
sired that  his  memory  should  be  kept  green  among  the  Berk- 
shire people,  and  remembering  the  comfort  and  peace  which 
sometimes  came  to  him  through  skillful,  tender  care,  the  two 
ideas  became  associated.  If  thus  a  permanent  material  monu- 
ment shall  stand  in  his  memory,  and  if  this  memorial  structure 
shall  send  forth  streams  of  healing  and  comfort  to  the  sick  and 
wounded  inhabitants  of  Berkshire  forever,  then  what  was  his 
loss  will  be  their  gain  and  my  sweet  consolation." 

Mr.  Bishop  builded  better  than  he  knew,  perhaps.  The  relief 
of  suffering  was  not  the  only  mission  accomplished  by  the  insti- 
tution which  he  founded.  Another  result  of  his  benefaction  was 
that  many  Pittsfield  people  were  taught  the  value  of  trained 
method  in  philanthropy  by  observing  the  charitable  work  of  the 
pupils  and  graduates  of  the  school  for  nurses. 

In  1909,  it  was  strongly  believed  that  scientific  method 
might  with  advantage  be  applied  also  to  the  unification,  in  certain 
respects,  of  some  of  the  city's  charitable  institutions;  and  an  or- 
ganization called  the  Associated  Charities  was  then  projected, 
and  was  formally  established  in  1911.  Arthur  N.  Cooley  was  the 
first  president,  and  has  since  served  in  that  office.  In  May,  1915, 
the  trustees  of  the  Union  for  Home  Work,  which  had  then  been 
inactive  for  four  years,  voted  to  unite  with  and  take  the  name  of 
the  Associated  Charities,  and  in  June  this  amalgamation  was 
legally  effected,  and  the  combined  organizations  were  incorpo- 
rated. The  Associated  Charities,  employing  trained  and  profes- 
sional agents,  thus  succeeded  to  the  functions  of  the  former  Union 
for  Home  Work,  in  so  far  as  the  investigation  and  assistance  of 
poverty  and  unemployment  were  concerned,  and  furthermore 
placed  its  advice  and  co-operation  at  the  service  of  any  local 
charity  operating  in  a  particular  field,  and,  indeed,  at  the  service 
of  any  individual  benevolently  disposed.     Accordingly,  the  in- 


232  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

fluence  of  the  Associated  Charities  was  toward  that  systematic 
centralization  of  philanthropic  effort  which  is  today  characteristic 
of  American  social  life,  and  which  was  evident  in  Pittsfield  as 
early  as  1878,  when  the  Union  for  Home  Work  was  formed. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
MILITARY  AND  PATRIOTIC  ORGANIZATIONS 

IN  the  first  volume  of  Joseph  E.  A.  Smith's  "History  of  Pitts- 
field",  the  author  characterizes  Hosea  Merrill  in  these 
words:  "Mr.  Merrill  was  in  after-life  a  fine  specimen  of  the 
Revolutionary  soldier  retired  to  private  life — a  calm,  even- 
tempered,  collected,  and  thoughtful  man;  kind  and  affectionate; 
speaking  ill  of  none;  quiet,  industrious,  and  economical;  spend- 
ing a  long  life  without  reproach,  and  fearing  no  man".  Those 
phrases  might  well  be  used  of  many  volunteer  soldiers  of  the 
Civil  War  who  made  their  homes  in  Pittsfield.  In  1876  and 
for  several  years  thereafter  they  were  a  considerable  and  an  in- 
fluential part  of  the  community.  They  were  then  in  the  prime 
of  life;  most  of  them,  indeed,  were  still  young.  Prominent 
among  them  were  such  good  citizens  as  William  Francis  Bart- 
lett,  Henry  S.  Briggs,  Walter  Cutting,  Joseph  Tucker,  Michael 
Casey,  Henry  H.  Richardson,  John  White.  A  town  possessing 
examples  of  this  stamp  of  the  nation's  citizen  soldiery  knew 
the  best  of  it. 

But  the  community,  although  thus  strongly  infused  with 
men  who  had  seen  military  service,  was  unmilitary.  The 
veterans  themselves  exhibited  the  characteristic  Pittsfield  dis- 
like of  permanent  organization.  The  first  local  post  of  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  that  was  formed  had  but  a  brief 
career.  Even  the  regimental  reunions  were  slimly  attended. 
There  were  resident  in  the  town  in  1876  about  fifty  men  who 
had  worn  the  uniforms  of  commissioned  ofiicers,  but  an  attempt 
failed  to  organize  them  in  a  formal  officers'  association.  As  for 
the  Pittsfield  company  of  state  militia,  it  was  on  the  rocks,  and 
in  1878  it  was  wrecked  completely.  The  announcement,  made 
in  1876,  that  "Co.  E,  2nd  Battalion,  6th  Brigade,  M.  V.  M." 
was  retained  in  the  service  of  the  Commonwealth,  was  greeted 


234  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

by  a  display  of  fireworks  at  the  Park,  a  parade,  and  a  serenade 
in  honor  of  John  L.  Colby.  Two  years  later,  however,  the  Colby 
Guard  was  disbanded  by  the  governor,  and  a  petition  for  the 
establishment  of  a  new  company  was  denied.  The  last  captain 
of  Company  E  was  J.  Brainard  Clark.  John  L.  Colby,  whose 
name  the  company  bore,  was  a  wealthy  owner  of  iron  works  at 
Lanesborough.  He  had  a  summer  home  in  Pittsfield  and  was  a 
dashing  figure  in  the  social  life  of  the  town.  In  1888  he  died 
in  New  York. 

The  first  observance  in  Pittsfield  of  the  ceremonies  from  which 
was  to  be  developed  the  impressive  and  beautiful  solemnization 
of  Memorial  Day  appears  to  have  been  informally  and  hastily 
arranged.  The  custom  of  annually  decorating  the  graves  of 
soldiers  began  on  May  thirty-first,  1868.  The  local  newspapers 
recount  merely  that  "a  large  concourse  of  people"  met  at  the 
cemetery  to  lay  flowers  on  the  soldiers'  graves  "under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  sexton,  Mr.  J.  W.  Fairbanks",  and  that,  at  the  grave 
of  Capt.  William  W.  Rockwell,  a  brief  address  was  made  by  Gen. 
Henry  S.  Briggs.  In  subsequent  years,  the  town  meeting  appro- 
priated money  yearly  to  defray  the  expenses  of  a  suitable  cele- 
bration, conducted  by  a  committee  appointed  by  the  moderator. 
The  original  appropriations  for  this  purpose  were  obtained 
mainly  through  the  stirring  advocacy  of  Morris  Schaff  and 
Thomas  G.  Colt. 

The  earliest  organization  in  the  town  of  a  post  of  the  Grand 
Army  of  the  Republic  was  in  1869.  This  was  Post  No.  98, 
Department  of  Massachusetts.  In  1870  it  bore  the  name 
"Phil  Sheridan",  and  in  1871  was  named  for  William  W.  Rock- 
well, Capt.  Rockwell,  a  native  of  Pittsfield  and  a  son  of  Judge 
Julius  Rockwell,  died  in  the  service  of  his  country  at  Baton 
Rouge,  Louisiana,  in  1863;  he  was  a  gallant  young  ofiicer  of  the 
Thirty-first  Massachusetts  regiment,  greatly  beloved  by  his 
men.  A  complete  record  of  the  first  W.  W.  Rockwell  Post 
seems  to  be  unobtainable.  When  the  post  was  chartered,  July 
eighth,  1869,  its  commander  was  Jacob  L.  Green,  and  among 
his  successors  were  Henry  S.  Briggs,  Warren  T.  C.  Colt,  and 
Henry  B.  Brewster.  On  January  sixth,  1877,  the  charter  was 
surrendered.     At  that  time  there  was  little  interest  in  the  Grand 


MILITARY  AND  PATRIOTIC  ORGANIZATIONS  235 

Army  of  the  Republic  discernible  in  the  western  part  of  Massa- 
chusetts. Its  total  membership  in  Berkshire  County  scarcely 
exceeded  one  hundred,  distributed  among  four  posts. 

Prosperity  and  influence,  however,  awaited  the  organization. 
The  veterans  in  Pittsfield  re-established  a  post  of  the  Grand 
Array  in  1882,  when,  on  March  tenth,  was  instituted  W.  W.  Rock- 
well Post,  No.  125,  with  twenty  charter  members.  Three 
years  later  the  membership  was  two  hundred.  The  first  com- 
mander was  Byron  Weston  of  Dalton,  and  the  scene  of  the  for- 
mation of  the  post  was  a  hall  in  the  block  next  north  of  the 
Berkshire  Life  Insurance  Company's  building.  In  1883  the 
headquarters  were  removed  to  the  Renne  building  on  Fenn 
Street  and  there  remained  until  1911,  when  Municipal  Hall  was 
made  available  by  the  city  for  the  uses  of  the  Grand  Army  and 
kindred  organizations.  The  list  of  commanders  of  Rockwell 
Post,  No.  125,  includes  Byron  Weston,  1882;  Charles  M.  Whel- 
den,  1883;  William  H.  Chamberlin,  1884;  Oliver  L.  Wood, 
1885;  Walter  Cutting,  1886;  Robert  B.  Dickie,  1887;  L.  B. 
Simons,  1888;  W.  F.  Harrington,  1889;  C.  B.  Scudder,  1890; 
John  White,  1891;  Jesse  Prickett,  1892;  William  F.  Harrington, 
1893;  John  Campbell,  1894;  Joseph  Tucker,  1895;  Francis  A. 
Ireland,  1896;  N.  S.  Noyes,  1897;  Edward  L.  Mills,  1898; 
John  White,  1899;  John  M.  Lee,  1900;  John  White,  1901. 
Since  1901,  Mr.  White  has  annually  served  as  commander  of  the 
post. 

The  Women's  Relief  Corps,  auxiliary  to  the  W.  W.  Rockwell 
Post,  was  chartered  in  1884,  and  was  honored  in  having  Mrs. 
William  Francis  Bartlett  for  its  first  president.  The  devoted 
and  kindly  work  performed  by  the  patriotic  women  of  the  corps, 
as  well  as  by  those  of  its  sister  organization  of  the  other  Grand 
Army  post  in  Pittsfield,  seems  even  to  have  increased  in  value 
with  the  passage  of  time.  A  camp  of  Sons  of  Veterans,  which 
was  an  outgrowth  of  Rockwell  Post,  was  formed  in  1883,  but 
its  existence  was  limited  to  a  few  years.  It  bore  the  name  of 
Thomas  G.  Colt,  whose  death  was  the  first  one  entered  on  the 
records  of  Rockwell  Post,  No.  125. 

Thomas  Goldthwaite  Colt  was  only  nineteen  years  old 
when,  in  1861,  he  enlisted  as  a  private  in  the  Tenth  Massa- 


236  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

chusetts  regiment;  in  1862  he  was  on  the  regimental  staff,  as 
adjutant,  of  the  Thirty-seventh;  and  at  the  end  of  the  war  in 
1865  he  had  won  his  brevet  of  Heutenant  colonel.  He  was  the 
son  of  Henry  Colt,  one  of  the  town's  stanch  and  vigorous  "war 
selectmen",  and  was  born  in  Pittsfield,  September  thirtieth, 
1842.  There  he  died,  May  tenth,  1883.  Dominant  among  his 
traits  was  his  cheerfulness  in  the  face  of  danger  or  in  defeat; 
the  veterans  of  the  Thirty-seventh  believed  that  their  youthful 
adjutant  embodied  the  buoyant  soul  of  the  regiment.  After 
the  war,  he  preserved  his  interest  in  military  affairs  and  military 
men,  for  he  was  a  born  soldier,  whom  soldiers  followed  with 
gay  contentment. 

A  conspicuous  member  of  Rockwell  Post,  and  a  conspicuously 
valuable  citizen  of  Pittsfield,  was  Henry  H.  Richardson.  He 
was  born  in  Belchertown,  Massachusetts,  January  twenty-fifth, 
1826,  and  in  1848  began  the  trade  of  carpenter  in  Pittsfield. 
He  was  a  lieutenant  of  the  Allen  Guard,  with  which  command 
he  went  to  Maryland  in  1861,  and  of  which  the  seventy-eight 
members  supplied  later  to  the  war  one  brigadier  general,  two 
lieutenant  colonels,  one  major,  four  captains,  and  seven  lieu- 
tenants. Immediately  after  its  discharge,  he  obtained  a  cap- 
taincy in  the  Twenty-first  Massachusetts,  and  with  this  famous 
fighting  regiment  he  served  without  intermission  for  three 
years.  Some  of  the  more  important  battles  in  which  he  did 
duty  were  those  of  Fredericksburg,  Chancellorsville,  South 
Mountain,  the  Wilderness,  Spottsylvania,  Cold  Harbor,  and 
Petersburg.  At  Petersburg  he  was  wounded,  and  while  he  was 
in  hospital  in  1865,  he  was  promoted  to  be  lieutenant  colonel. 
He  does  not  seem  to  have  accepted  the  promotion,  but  the 
speech  of  his  neighbors  always  thereafter  proudly  gave  to  him 
the  title. 

Col.  Richardson,  after  the  war,  became  a  builder  and  con- 
tractor in  Pittsfield,  where  he  died,  on  March  thirty-first,  1904. 
Of  proverbial  integrity,  he  served  the  fire  district  as  an  efficient 
commissioner  of  main  drains  and  the  city  as  a  member  of  the 
municipal  council.  His  face  was  rugged,  his  figure  was  solid 
and  squarely  set,  and  he  was  a  natural  leader  of  men,  being 
masterful,  straightforward,  and  reticent;    it  was  often  amusing 


MILITARY  AND  PATRIOTIC  ORGANIZATIONS  237 

to  observe  with  what  difficulty  he  could  be  induced  to  speak  of 
his  fighting  days  in  the  Civil  War,  To  few  of  his  time  can  be 
applied  with  stricter  truth  Mr.  Smith's  characterization  of  the 
Revolutionary  veteran,  which  begins  this  chapter — "speaking 
ill  of  none;  quiet,  industrious,  and  economical;  spending  a  long 
life  without  reproach;    and  fearing  no  man." 

Charles  M.  Whelden  was  born  at  Boston,  December  twenty- 
sixth,  1821,  and  died  at  Newton,  Massachusetts,  January 
twenty-fifth,  1910.  He  became  a  resident  of  Pittsfield  in  1851, 
after  adventurous  experiences  in  California  and  South  America. 
At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  he  attached  himself  to  the 
leadership  of  Gen.  Benjamin  F.  Butler;  and  through  the  in- 
fluence of  that  much-debated  commander  he  was  commissioned 
a  lieutenant  colonel  in  1862.  The  actual  commission,  because 
of  the  pique,  it  was  said,  of  a  fellow  officer,  did  not  come  into 
his  possession  until  1895.  Col.  Whelden  served  as  a  provost 
marshal  in  Louisiana,  Virginia,  and  North  Carolina.  He  was 
for  many  years  of  his  long  life  a  druggist  in  Pittsfield,  where  his 
sprightly  temperament  and  ability  to  make  many  men  his 
friends  brought  him  often  to  the  fore  in  town  affairs  and  in 
those  of  the  Rockwell  Post. 

One  of  the  leading  charter  members  of  Rockwell  Post  was 
Israel  C.  Weller,  who  was  born  in  Fowlers ville.  New  York, 
in  1840,  and  died  in  Pittsfield,  November  third,  1900.  He 
came  to  Pittsfield  in  his  boyhood,  was  a  member  of  the  Allen 
Guard  in  1861,  and  afterwards  served  as  a  captain  in  the  Forty- 
ninth.  He  was  endowed  with  an  extraordinary  genius  for 
humorous  story-telling,  and  all  his  life  his  popularity  was  un- 
bounded. Accustomed  to  deprecate  jocosely  his  own  military 
services,  he  was  nevertheless  a  reliable  and  steadfast  volunteer 
officer. 

William  H.  Chamberlin,  commander  of  Rockwell  Post  in 
1884,  was  a  native  of  Dalton,  where  he  was  born  May  fifteenth, 
1841.  He  enlisted  from  Illinois  in  the  Thirty-sixth  regiment  of 
volunteer  infantry  of  that  state,  and  was  wounded  and  captured 
at  the  battle  of  Stone  River.  In  1878  he  became  a  resident  of 
Pittsfield,  having  in  the  meantime  conducted  profitably  the 
business   of  paper  manufacturing   in   New   York.     His  philan- 


238  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

thropy  was  far-reaching,  unostentatious,  and  practical.  The 
aid  which  he  gave  to  the  interests  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  was  specially  noteworthy.  A  quiet,  democratic 
man,  he  cherished  stoutly  the  patriotic  spirit  of  the  war-times 
of  his  youth;  and  it  is  believed  that  few  old  soldiers  failed  to 
find  him  a  cheery  and  helpful  friend.  He  died  in  Pittsfield, 
August  ninth,  1901. 

In  1889  a  number  of  the  members  of  Rockwell  Post  with- 
drew from  the  organization  and  formed  Berkshire  Post,  No.  197. 
The  latter  was  instituted,  with  forty-six  charter  members,  on 
April  eighteenth,  1889,  in  a  hall  in  West's  block  on  the  corner 
of  North  Street  and  Park  Square.  The  first  commander  was 
Walter  Cutting,  who  served  until  1893.  In  1893,  William  E. 
Wilcox  was  commander  of  Berkshire  Post;  in  the  years  1894 
and  1895,  James  Kittle;  in  1896,  James  F.  Thurston;  in  1897, 
Orra  P.  Wright;  in  1898,  William  F.  Hunt;  in  1899  and  1900, 
John  S.  Smith;  in  1901  and  1902,  Richard  Stapleton;  in  1903, 
Charles  E.  Johnson;  in  1904  and  1905,  Oliver  L.  Wood;  in 
1906,  William  E.  Wilcox.  John  H.  Skinkle,  the  present  com- 
mander, was  first  installed  in  1907,  and  has  since  been  annually 
re-elected. 

The  membership  was  doubled  within  a  few  years  of  the  insti- 
tution of  the  post,  which  exhibited  a  sound  activity,  wherein 
the  early  interest  of  such  members  as  Walter  Cutting  and  of 
William  H.  Chamberlin  was  conspicuous.  In  1890  the  post  in- 
spired the  forming  of  the  William  F.  Bartlett  Camp,  Sons  of 
Veterans;  and  in  1892  the  post  and  the  camp  began  to  use  the 
same  quarters  in  the  England  block,  on  the  east  side  of  North 
Street.  In  1894  was  chartered,  as  auxiliary  to  both  these  as- 
sociations, the  Women's  Independent  Aid  Society,  which  after- 
wards became  the  Berkshire  Women's  Relief  Corps,  No.  129. 
In  1901,  the  meeting  place  of  the  three  organizations  was  re- 
moved to  a  hall  in  the  "Bay  State  Block",  on  Fenn  Street,  and 
in  1911  their  headquarters  were  established  in  the  Municipal 
Building  opposite  the  post  office. 

In  the  various  quarters  occupied  by  the  two  Pittsfield  posts, 
much  sympathetic  and  substantial  help  has  been  extended  to 
their  members,   many  war  stories  have  been  exchanged,  and 


MILITARY  AND  PATRIOTIC  ORGANIZATIONS  239 

steadfast  patriotism  has  been  fostered,  as  in  places  of  the  same 
kind  the  country  over.  The  relief  funds  were  maintained  by 
more  or  less  elaborate  fairs  and  entertainments.  Public  ob- 
servance of  Memorial  Day  has  been  maintained  with  faithful 
alertness,  in  spite  of  the  burden  of  advancing  age.  An  excerpt 
here  from  the  adjutant's  book  of  Berkshire  Post  has  a  quaintly 
touching  significance.  It  bears  date  May  twelfth,  1913,  fifty 
years  after  those  who  took  part  in  the  meeting,  which  it  records, 
had  marched  in  the  Civil  War. 

"Motion  made  and  seconded  that  the  Post  ride  to  Cemetery 
on  Memorial  Day — Carried. 

"Motion  made  and  seconded  that  the  vote  to  ride  on  Me- 
morial Day  be  rescinded — Carried." 

And  the  veterans  marched,  as  stalwartly  as  might  be. 

The  distinction  of  having  been  continuously  an  ofiicer  in 
Berkshire  Post  from  the  date  of  its  institution  to  that  of  his 
death  was  possessed  by  John  Summerville  Smith.  He  was 
born  in  Paisley,  Scotland,  in  1842,  came  as  a  boy  to  Pittsfield, 
and  there  died,  April  first,  1907.  His  military  service  was  in 
the  Eighth  Massachusetts,  in  1864.  By  trade  a  harness-maker, 
Mr.  Smith  was  a  valuable  member  of  the  town's  fire  department, 
and  an  efficient  foreman  of  the  Housatonic  Engine  Company  for 
many  years. 

Oliver  L.  Wood,  commander  of  Berkshire  Post  in  1904  and 
1905,  was  born  in  Becket,  Massachusetts,  October  twenty-first, 
1841,  and  died  in  Pittsfield,  November  eleventh,  1911.  He 
went  to  the  front  in  1862,  as  one  of  the  color  corporals  in  the 
Forty-ninth  Massachusetts  regiment.  In  1874  he  became  a 
resident  of  Pittsfield,  a  good  type  of  the  reliable  and  self-reliant 
volunteer  soldier  in  civil  life.  In  1887  he  was  appointed  a 
deputy  sheriff,  and  in  1901  an  officer  of  the  state  police. 

Another  veteran  of  the  Forty-ninth  regiment  who  was  a 
faithful  official  of  Berkshire  Post  was  James  Kittle,  a  native 
of  England,  where  he  was  born  in  1841.  In  1855  he  came  to 
live  in  Pittsfield,  and  he  died  there.  May  sixteenth,  1915.  A 
quiet,  trustworthy  citizen,  he  was  for  nineteen  years  chairman 
of  the  local  board  of  registrars,  and  was  a  representative  of  his 
district  in  the  legislature  of  the  state.     As  the  long-time  secre- 


240  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

tary  of  the  Forty-ninth  Regiment  Association,  Mr.  Kittle  was 
one  of  its  mainstays  and  was  held  by  its  members  in  strong  af- 
fection. 

Michael  Casey  was  disinclined  by  temperament  from  holding 
office,  but  every  organization  of  which  he  was  a  member  was 
certain  to  find  his  membership  a  strong  and  dependable  help. 
One  of  these  organizations  was  Berkshire  Post.  Mr.  Casey  was 
born  in  Ireland  in  1843.  He  came  to  Pittsfield  when  he  was  a 
boy,  and  was  still  almost  a  boy  when  he  went  to  the  front  as 
sergeant  in  the  Thirty-seventh  regiment.  At  the  close  of  the 
war  he  was  a  first  lieutenant.  In  1868  he  established  himself  in 
business  at  Pittsfield  in  partnership  with  James  L.  Bacon.  The 
firm  of  Casey  and  Bacon,  dealing  in  grocery  supplies,  soon  be- 
came solely  a  wholesale  house;  its  career  was  prosperous  and 
honorable;  and  having  been  conducted  successfully  as  a  part- 
nership for  forty-one  years,  it  was  dissolved  in  1909,  and  the 
present  corporation  was  formed  bearing  the  same  name.  Mr. 
Casey  died  at  Pittsfield,  November  twenty-sixth,  1913. 

He  was  a  self-contained  man  of  few  words,  but  his  influence 
was  far-reaching.  A  devout  churchman,  he  was  found  by  suc- 
cessive priests  at  St.  Joseph's  to  be  among  the  foremost  in  up- 
holding, without  ostentation,  the  interests  of  the  parish.  His 
public  spirit  was  active  and  progressive.  To  this  was  in  great 
part  due,  for  an  example,  the  provision  of  land  at  Morningside 
for  the  use  of  the  Stanley  Electric  Manufacturing  Company, 
when  upon  such  provision  depended  the  retention  of  the  shops 
in  Pittsfield.  Mr.  Casey  believed  in  encouraging,  and  he  himself 
often  encouraged,  the  planting  of  new  industries  in  the  city; 
and  in  his  later  years  he  concerned  himself  largely  with  develop- 
ing new  residential  districts.  For  such  enterprises  the  merited 
trust  of  the  people  in  his  probity  and  sound  judgment  well 
adapted  him. 

Although  Walter  Cutting  was  by  birth,  breeding,  and  inter- 
mittent residence,  a  New  Yorker,  he  touched  the  life  of  Pittsfield 
at  many  points.  He  was  probably  more  constantly  and  closely 
connected  with  the  life  of  the  two  Grand  Army  posts  than  with 
any  other  local  activity.  Walter  Cutting  was  born  in  the  city 
of  New  York,  April  nineteenth,   1841,  and  died  in  Pittsfield, 


MILITARY  AND  PATRIOTIC  ORGANIZATIONS  241 

July  twenty-third,  1907.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  he 
was  a  junior,  in  the  class  of  1862,  at  Columbia  College.  He  was 
appointed  to  the  staff  of  Gen.  Christopher  C.  Augur,  and  was 
promoted  to  the  rank  of  lieutenant  colonel  for  "gallant  and 
meritorious  services."  To  the  end  of  his  days  he  retained  some- 
thing of  the  chivalric  dash,  in  bearing  and  manner  of  speech, 
of  the  bean  sahreur  of  military  tradition. 

Col.  Cutting  was  married,  in  1869,  to  Miss  Maria  Pomeroy, 
daughter  of  Robert  Pomeroy  of  Pittsfield,  and  he  made  Pittsfield 
his  home  after  1870.  His  connection  with  various  interests  of 
the  town  soon  became  influential.  He  engaged  vivaciously  in 
local  politics  and  in  the  volunteer  fire  department.  In  the 
affairs  of  St.  Stephen's  he  was  an  energetic  factor.  He  was 
a  trustee  of  the  Berkshire  Athenaeum.  A  Democrat  of  en- 
thusiastic allegiance.  Col.  Cutting  was  a  delegate  to  several 
national  presidential  conventions,  and  received  from  his  party 
in  Massachusetts  a  nomination  for  the  office  of  lieutenant  gov- 
ernor of  the  Commonwealth. 

In  middle  life  he  inherited  a  comfortable  fortune,  and  at 
Meadow  Farm  on  Holmes  Road,  where  now  is  Miss  Hall's 
school  for  girls.  Col.  Cutting  conducted  for  several  years  a 
stock  farm  on  an  extensive  scale.  This  avocation  led  to  his  im- 
portance in  the  boards  of  direction  of  the  Berkshire  Agricultural 
Society.  Assistance  was  given  by  him  generously  to  many 
associations  and  individuals;  and  in  his  younger  days  his  ex- 
ceptional talent  in  entertainment  was  the  chief  feature  of  most 
of  Pittsfield's  amateur  performances  for  the  benefit  of  charity. 
In  all  of  his  undertakings,  large  or  small,  he  was  ardent,  not 
seldom  headstrong,  not  often  complacent  with  opposition.  His 
rare  and  pleasant  social  graces  were  conspicuous,  and  were  his 
by  right  of  aristocracy  of  Knickerbocker  lineage,  but  the  posses- 
sion of  them  did  not  set  him  apart  from  the  everyday  life  of  a 
New  England  town.  To  his  friends  and  to  the  causes  which 
attracted  him,  his  loyalty  was  of  the  sort  which  is  not  to  be 
shaken,  and  in  upholding  his  friends  and  his  causes  he  was  a 
hearty,  honest  fighter,  giving  no  c^uarter  and  seeking  none. 

The  local  organization  of  sons  of  veterans  of  the  Civil  War, 
already    mentioned    in    connection    with    Berkshire    Post,    was 


242  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

chartered  on  April  eleventh,  1890,  its  oflBcial  title  being  Gen, 
W,  F.  Bartlett  Camp,  No.  108,  Division  of  Massachusetts. 
There  were  twenty-five  charter  members,  and  the  first  command- 
er was  Harry  D.  Sisson.  His  successors  were  Edwin  B,  Tyler, 
Eugene  M.  Wilson,  Orlando  S.  Fish,  Milton  B.  Warner,  David 
J.  Gimlich,  Charles  W.  Noble,  Burdick  A.  Stewart,  Leroy  P. 
Ogden,  Donaldson  M.  Peck,  Charles  E.  Carey,  Edward  J. 
Combs,  Harry  F.  Sears,  J.  Ward  Lewis,  Walter  W.  Sisson,  and 
Linus  W.  Harger,  The  camp  filled  with  credit  its  place  among 
the  patriotic  organizations  of  the  city.  Its  importance  in  the 
state  was  recognized  in  1896,  when  one  of  its  leaders,  Harry  D. 
Sisson,  was  elected  division  commander  of  the  Division  of 
Massachusetts.  Among  the  members  of  the  camp  in  1915  were 
a  son  and  a  grandson  of  the  heroic  general  whose  name  it  bears. 

The  period  of  Pittsfield's  history  which  is  the  subject  of  this 
volume  is  that  of  the  declining  age  of  the  men  who  fought  in  the 
war  between  the  states.  It  is  right  to  say  that  the  city's  atti- 
tude toward  them  and  their  spirit  has  been  one  of  properly 
maintained  respect  and  honor.  The  two  Grand  Army  posts, 
gradually  decreasing  in  membership,  have  been  held  by  the 
community  in  increasing  regard.  The  loyal  work  in  their  behalf 
of  the  faithful  and  public-spirited  women  of  the  two  Relief 
Corps  has  been  generally  and  gratefully  recognized;  and  the 
preservation  of  their  traditions  by  the  Sons  of  Veterans  has 
been  rightly  esteemed  by  thinking  citizens.  The  patriotic  ap- 
preciation survived,  which  prompted  the  older  town  to  erect  the 
Soldiers'  Monument  in  1872, 

Organization  in  Pittsfield  of  a  chapter  of  the  national  society 
of  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution  was  effected  in  1896, 
and  its  first  meeting  was  held  in  the  following  year,  on  February 
thirteenth.  The  founder  and  first  regent  was  Mrs,  James 
Brewer  Crane  of  Dalton,  and  the  name  selected  was  Peace 
Party  Chapter,  D.  A,  R.,  the  title  being  commemorative  of  the 
festal  gathering,  long  famous  in  village  anecdote,  whereby  Pitts- 
field  celebrated  the  end  of  the  war  in  1783,  on  the  grounds  of 
the  "Chandler  Williams  place",  on  East  Street. 

The  women  of  the  local  chapter  have  pursued  with  animated 
diligence  the  lines  of  patriotic  and  charitable  activity  prescribed 


MILITARY  AND  PATRIOTIC  ORGANIZATIONS  243 

by  the  national  society.  Their  contributions  to  the  Red  Cross 
and  to  the  aid  for  the  soldiers  of  the  Spanish  War  in  1898  were 
substantial.  They  have  fostered  patriotism  in  the  public 
schools  by  the  presentation  of  flags  and  the  offering  of  prizes 
for  essays  on  patriotic  subjects.  In  1915,  the  graves  of  more 
Revolutionary  soldiers  were  visibly  honored  by  Peace  Party 
Chapter  than  by  any  other  chapter  of  the  society  in  Massa- 
chusetts. The  chapter  presented  to  Pittsfield  a  stone  sun-dial, 
marking  the  spot  where  grew  the  historic  Old  Elm  in  the  Park, 
which  was  dedicated  June  twenty-fourth,  1903;  and  it  has  en- 
couraged the  provision  of  historical  memorials  in  neighboring 
towns.  The  Pittsfield  women  who  have  served  as  regents  have 
been  Mrs.  William  A.  Whittlesey,  Mrs.  John  M.  Stevenson, 
Mrs.  Frank  Peirson,  and  Mrs.  H.  Neill  Wilson.  For  a  number 
of  years  after  1896,  Peace  Party  Chapter  had  the  unique  privilege 
of  carrying  on  its  membership  list  the  names  of  two  venerable 
ladies  whose  fathers  saw  service  in  the  Revolution. 

The  Berkshire  County  Chapter  of  the  Massachusetts  Society 
of  the  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution  was  organized  in  Pitts- 
field in  1897;  and  the  charter,  for  which  the  application  received 
thirty-one  signatures,  was  granted  on  June  seventh  of  that  year. 
The  first  president  was  Wellington  Smith  of  Lee.  Those  of  his 
successors  whose  homes  were  in  Pittsfield  were  Henry  W.  Taft, 
James  W.  Hull,  John  M.  Stevenson,  Allen  H.  Bagg,  Edward  T. 
Slocum,  Joseph  E.  Peirson,  and  William  L.  Root. 

Efforts  of  the  chapter  have  resulted  in  the  placing  of  two 
important  memorial  tablets,  and  in  the  arrangement  of  appro- 
priate dedications  of  them.  On  August  twentieth,  1908,  was 
unveiled  in  Lanesborough  the  bowlder  and  tablet  in  honor  of 
Jonathan  Smith,  the  Berkshire  farmer  whose  speech  in  the  con- 
stitutional convention  at  Boston  in  1788  had  so  much  to  do  with 
the  acceptance  by  Massachusetts  of  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States.  The  movement  to  provide  the  memorial  was 
originated  by  the  Berkshire  County  Chapter,  S.  A.  R.,  and  the 
dedicatory  exercises  were  dignified  by  the  participation  of  the 
acting  governor  of  the  Commonwealth,  Eben  S.  Draper.  A 
stone  marker  with  a  bronze  inscription  was  placed  by  the  chapter 
in  1911  on  South  Street  in  Pittsfield  on  the  site  of  Easton's  Tav- 


244  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

ern,  where  was  planned  the  expedition  which  captured  Fort 
Ticonderoga  in  1775.  The  marker  was  dedicated  on  July  third, 
1911;  and  the  exercises  were  an  impressive  part  of  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  150th  anniversary  of  the  incorporation  of  the  town 
of  Pittsfield. 

Pittsfield  men  who  had  served  in  the  war  of  1898  against 
Spain  formed,  shortly  after  the  close  of  the  war,  a  branch  of  the 
national  organization  known  as  the  Regular  and  Volunteer 
Army  and  Navy  Union.  The  local  society  was  named  in  mem- 
ory of  Franklin  W.  Manning.  It  was  disbanded  in  1914  to  be 
succeeded  by  the  Richard  Dowling  Camp,  No.  35,  United  Spanish 
War  Veterans.  The  camp,  bearing  the  name  of  a  Dalton  boy 
who  was  killed  in  action  in  Cuba,  has  continued  creditably  to 
fulfill  its  patriotic  purpose,  joining  the  Grand  Army  posts  and  the 
Sons  of  Veterans  in  public  celebrations  in  honor  of  the  country's 
flag.  Commanders  of  Dowling  Camp  have  been  John  B.  Mickle, 
Frank  D.  Fisher,  Frank  Kie,  and  Robert  H.  Knight. 

The  city's  company  of  state  militia,  mustered  into  the  service 
of  the  Commonwealth  as  Co.  F,  Second  Infantry,  M.  V.  M., 
on  June  sixth,  1901,  was  maintained  with  steadily  increasing 
efficiency,  and  did  not,  in  this  respect,  fall  behind  other  units 
of  the  military  forces  of  the  state.  Its  headquarters  were  in  the 
Casino  and  in  the  Academy  of  Music,  until  its  armory  on  Sum- 
mer Street  was  occupied  in  December,  1908.  John  Nicholson, 
the  first  captain  of  Co.  F,  was  retired  with  the  rank  of  major  in 
1912,  and  Ambrose  Clogher,  now  captain,  was  then  selected 
for  the  command.  The  lieutenants  have  been  Robert  K.  Willard, 
Wellington  K.  Henry,  Ambrose  Clogher,  Walter  E.  Warren, 
Harry  F.  Sears,  Harry  Adamson,  and  Charles  H.  Ingram. 

While  these  pages  were  in  preparation,  Co.  F  was  on  duty 
along  the  Mexican  border,  summoned  to  the  service  of  the  nation 
in  June,  1916.  The  company  left  Pittsfield,  on  its  way  to  the 
mobilization  camp  of  Massachusetts  troops,  on  June  twenty- 
first.  This  was  the  first  departure,  since  the  days  of  1861,  of  a 
body  of  local  soldiers  on  a  journey  which  might  lead  them  to 
actual  war.  It  was  v;itnessed  with  pride  and  with  high  confi- 
dence that,  whatever  the  event,  the  men  would  sustain  the  best 
traditions  of  the  citizen  soldiery  of  Pittsfield. 


CHAPTER  XVII 
INDUSTRIAL  AND  FINANCIAL 

IN  respect  of  the  number  of  people  employed,  the  manufactory 
of  stationery  of  the  Eaton,  Crane  and  Pike  Company  has 
been  the  most  important  establishment  developed  in  Pitts- 
field  during  the  last  forty  years,  except  the  local  works  of  the 
General  Electric  Company.  The  offspring  of  the  Hurlbut  Sta- 
tionery Company,  a  concern  which  began  operations  in  Pittsfield 
in  1893  with  less  than  forty  people  under  employment  in  factory 
and  office,  the  Eaton,  Crane,  and  Pike  Company  in  1915  em- 
ployed about  1,000  people. 

In  1893,  Arthur  W.  Eaton,  then  president  of  the  Hurlbut 
Paper  Manufacturing  Company  of  South  Lee,  organized  the 
Hurlbut  Stationery  Company,  in  association  with  William  A. 
Pike  of  the  firm  of  Hard  and  Pike,  which  conducted  a  modest 
manufactory  of  stationery  in  the  city  of  New  York.  Pittsfield, 
rather  than  South  Lee,  was  finally  selected  as  the  headquarters 
of  the  enterprise;  and  the  plant  of  Hard  and  Pike  was  removed 
from  New  York  to  the  factory  on  South  Church  Street,  which 
had  been  erected  in  1883  for  the  Terry  Clock  Company,  and 
had  for  a  year  been  disused.  The  purchase  of  this  building  by 
Mr.  Eaton  personally  in  1893  probably  caused  the  new  industry 
to  be  established  in  Pittsfield.  There,  in  August,  1893,  the 
Hurlbut  Stationery  Company  began  its  course. 

Its  infancy  was  beset  not  only  by  nation-wide  business  de- 
pression, but  also  by  lack  of  trained  operatives,  by  the  necessity 
of  converting  to  its  uses  a  shop  not  intended  for  them,  and  by 
powerful  competitors.  About  1896,  however,  the  young  Pitts- 
field concern  gave  many  signs  of  healthful  growth.  The  con- 
trolling owner  was  the  Hurlbut  Paper  Manufacturing  Company, 
of  South  Lee;  but  the  entire  property  of  that  corporation  was 
bought  by  the  American  Writing  Paper  Company  in  1899,  and 


246  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

there  was  danger  that  this  syndicate  would  remove  the  locally 
valuable  industry  from  the  city.  The  danger  was  averted  by  the 
organization,  through  the  efforts  of  Arthur  W.  Eaton,  of  the 
Eaton-Hurlbut  Paper  Company,  to  which  the  American  Writing 
Paper  Company  sold  the  South  Church  Street  plant  in  1899. 

The  remarkable  development  of  the  enterprise  thereafter 
was  a  salient  feature  in  the  industrial  aspect  of  Pittsfield.  The 
erection  of  three  substantial  additions  in  1901  nearly  doubled 
the  employment  capacity,  increasing  it  to  one  of  about  450 
hands,  and  this  was  enlarged  repeatedly  in  the  years  immediately 
following.  The  Eaton-Hurlbut  Paper  Company  soon  absorbed 
the  Berkshire  Typewriter  Paper  Company  and  also  the  business 
of  Sisson  and  Robinson,  a  firm  which  occupied  part  of  its  factory 
and  manufactured  its  boxes.  In  1908  the  company  announced 
that  arrangements  had  been  effected  with  the  proprietors  of  the 
Crane  paper  mills  in  Dalton,  whereby  it  was  to  utilize  for  its 
stationery  the  famous  writing  paper  manufactured  by  the  Messrs. 
Crane,  and  to  market  a  product  thus  made  completely  in  Berk- 
shire. This  alliance  caused  a  reorganization  of  the  Pittsfield 
corporation;  and  the  corporate  name,  in  March,  1908,  was 
changed  to  the  Eaton,  Crane,  and  Pike  Company. 

The  president  of  the  reorganized  company  was  Arthur  W. 
Eaton,  who  had  served  as  president  of  the  Eaton-Hurlbut  Com- 
pany during  its  entire  existence.  The  present  officers  of  the 
Eaton,  Crane,  and  Pike  Company  are  Arthur  W.  Eaton,  presi- 
dent; William  A.  Pike  and  Charles  C.  Davis,  vice-presidents; 
and  William  H.  Eaton,  secretary  and  treasurer. 

After  1908,  added  facilities  were  obtained,  by  enlargements 
of  the  South  Church  Street  shops  and  by  the  acquiring  of  two 
auxiliary  plants  nearby,  of  which  one  was  a  veteran  mill  formerly 
of  L.  Pomeroy's  Sons.  The  factories  of  the  company,  with  an 
employment  capacity  of  more  than  1,000  people,  were  made  cap- 
able of  producing  stationery  daily  to  the  amount  of  60,000  quires 
of  paper  and  1,500,000  envelopes.  In  providing  for  the  safety 
and  well-being  of  its  working  force,  the  company  has  been  a  pro- 
gressive leader  among  the  industrial  establishments  of  New 
England;  and  a  loyal  spirit  of  co-operation,  both  in  its  offices 
and  in  its  shops,  has  been  not  the  least  effective  factor  in  its 


INDUSTRIAL  AND  FINANCIAL  247 

success.  The  company's  market  includes  not  only  the  United 
States  and  Canada,  but  also  South  America,  Cuba,  Mexico,  and 
the  Philippine  and  Hawaiian  Islands. 

Even  wider  in  geographical  extent  has  been  the  market  de- 
veloped by  the  E.  D.  Jones  and  Sons  Company,  whose  ma- 
chinery is  used  in  many  of  the  industrial  centers  of  Asia,  Europe, 
and  North  and  South  America.  The  plant  of  this  company  on 
McKay  Street  is  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  small  machine  shop 
established  there  by  Gordon  McKay  about  1844.  In  1872  this 
was  operated  by  the  firm  of  William  Clark  and  Company,  of 
which  Edward  D.  Jones  was  a  member.  A  new  foundry  on 
Clapp  Avenue  was  built  in  1874,  when  the  chief  product  was 
beating  and  washing  engines,  dusting  machines,  and  mill  ele- 
vators. In  1890  the  property  was  acquired  by  the  partnership 
of  E.  D.  Jones  and  Sons  Company,  which  was  incorporated  in 
1893.  In  the  next  year,  a  new  machine  shop  and  an  addition  to 
the  foundry  were  erected;  in  1903,  the  boiler  works  of  H.  S. 
Russell  were  purchased,  refitted,  and  made  a  part  of  the  machine 
shop;  and  in  1906  and  1907,  the  main  foundry  was  entirely  re- 
built. Storage  facilities  were  arranged  on  land  at  the  corner  of 
Newell  and  East  Streets,  and  a  spur  railroad  track  across  East 
Street  connected  this  storeyard  with  the  main  line  of  the  Boston 
and  Albany  Railroad,  which  was  connected  also  with  the  ma- 
chine shops  by  a  spur  track  across  Depot  Street. 

In  1915  the  concern  employed  about  160  people.  Its  prin- 
cipal business  was  the  planning  and  equipment  of  paper  mills, 
and  to  its  former  output  had  been  added  rotary  pumps,  defibering 
machines,  pulpers,  and  paper-washing,  cooking,  and  refining 
engines.  Edward  D.  Jones,  who  laid  the  foundations  of  the 
great  prosperity  of  the  company  and  was  its  first  president,  died 
in  1904,  and  was  succeeded  in  the  presidency  by  his  son,  Edward 
A.  Jones. 

An  unpretentious  little  brewery,  with  a  daily  output  of  less 
than  six  barrels,  was  conducted  on  a  site  near  the  present  corner 
of  South  John  Street  and  Columbus  Avenue  by  Michael  Benson 
in  1868,  when  it  was  purchased  by  two  energetic  young  Ger- 
mans, Jacob  Gimlich  and  John  White.  In  1880  the  partners  were 
able  to  build  a  brick  cold  storage  vault,  and  in  1886  a  new  malt- 


248  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

house,  with  a  capacity  of  30,000  bushels.  In  1890  they  began 
the  erection  of  a  large  brewhouse,  now  the  center  of  an  establish- 
ment with  a  yearly  capacity  output  of  about  75,000  barrels,  em- 
ploying about  sixty  hands,  and  shipping  its  product  to  Vermont, 
Connecticut,  New  York,  and  North  and  South  Carolina,  besides 
Western  Massachusetts.  The  growth  of  few  other  contempora- 
neous Pittsfield  industries  has  been  so  rapid  and  so  sound,  for 
improvements  of  manufacturing  methods,  especially  in  the 
bottling  department,  have  been  introduced  unsparingly.  The 
brewery  is  the  only  one  within  a  radius  of  fifty  miles. 

The  partnership  of  Gimlich  and  White  was  incorporated  in 
1892,  under  the  name  of  the  Berkshire  Brewing  Association. 
The  first  president  was  Jacob  Gimlich,  who  held  the  office  until 
his  death  in  1912  and  was  then  succeeded  by  John  White.  The 
present  officers  are  John  White,  president,  David  J.  Gimlich, 
vice-president,  John  A.  White,  secretary,  and  George  H.  White, 
treasurer. 

Between  1880  and  1890,  the  manufacture  of  shoes  was  of  a 
local  importance  second  only  to  that  of  textile  manufacturing. 
The  shoe  factory  of  Robbins  and  Kellogg  on  Fourth  Street  gave 
employment  to  about  450  hands  in  1884,  and  the  outlay  for 
wages  was  larger  than  that  of  any  other  factory  in  the  town. 
This  firm  began  business  in  1870,  and  was  succeeded  by  the  O.  W. 
Robbins  Shoe  Company,  incorporated  in  1892.  Shortly  after 
1900  the  company  was  discontinued.  Farrell  and  May  began 
the  manufacture  of  shoes  in  1888,  in  the  building  of  the  Kellogg 
Steam  Power  Company.  The  Cheshire  Shoe  Company  in  1889 
was  induced  by  the  public-spirited  investment  of  local  capital  to 
establish  a  shop  in  Pittsfield.  The  shop  was  purchased  in  1902 
by  the  Zimmerman  Shoe  Company  and  in  1905  by  the  Eaton- 
Hurlbut  Paper  Company.  The  Mills  Shoe  Company  and  the 
Holman-Page  Shoe  Company  were  in  operation  in  the  city  be* 
tween  1900  and  1910;  but  shoe  manufacturing  has  since  lost 
the  prominent  place  which  it  once  occupied  among  the  industries 
of  the  city. 

Tack  manufacturing  was  carried  on  from  1875  to  1889  by 
the  Pittsfield  Tack  Company,  at  first  in  the  building  of  the  Kel- 
logg Steam  Power  Company  and  after  1883  in  that  of  the  Terry 


INDUSTRIAL  AND  FINANCIAL  249 

Clock  Company  on  South  Church  Street.  This  tack  manufac- 
tory was  discontinued  in  September,  1889,  and  was  succeeded 
by  that  of  the  Berkshire  Tack  Company,  of  which  Walter  Cut- 
ting was  president  and  which  had  its  shop  in  the  Kellogg  Steam 
Power  building  and  afterward  on  Pearl  Street.  Operations  were 
finally  suspended  in  1901. 

Another  of  the  many  tenants  of  the  Kellogg  Steam  Power 
building  was  the  Saunders  Silk  Company.  This  corporation 
failed  in  1876.  Two  years  later,  S.  K.  Smith,  who  had  been  the 
foreman  for  the  Saunders  Company,  formed  a  partnership  with 
William  B.  and  Arthur  H.  Rice,  and  the  new  firm  in  1878  began 
the  manufacture  of  silk  thread  in  a  small  shop  on  the  corner  of 
Robbins  Avenue  and  Linden  Street,  where  thirty  people  were 
employed.  In  1880,  silk  braid,  then  of  rare  manufacture  in  the 
United  States,  was  added  to  the  output. 

The  Messrs.  Rice  in  1884  acquired  the  interest  of  their  part- 
ner, organized  the  new  firm  of  A.  H.  Rice  and  Company,  and 
continued  the  business  in  the  original  quarters  until  1886,  when 
they  moved  the  manufactory  to  a  building  at  the  corner  of 
Burbank  and  Spring  Streets,  formerly  used  as  a  woolen  mill  by 
Farnham  and  Lathers.  In  the  meantime,  A.  H.  Rice  and  Com- 
pany had  commenced  the  manufacture  of  mohair  braid;  and  in 
1893  they  purchased  the  mohair  braid  plant  of  the  Barnes  Man- 
ufacturing Company  of  Paterson,  New  Jersey,  and  installed  the 
equipment  of  this  plant  in  Pittsfield  in  1894.  The  complicated 
machinery  had  been  made  in  Germany  and  required  specially 
trained  operatives. 

The  subsequent  growth  of  the  business  of  A.  H.  Rice  and 
Company  was  so  considerable  as  to  compel  the  enlargement  of 
the  Burbank  Street  factory  in  1896  by  the  erection  of  new  build- 
ings. At  present  about  250  people  are  normally  employed. 
The  product  includes  silk  threads  of  all  kinds,  and  braids  of  silk 
and  mohair.  Elaborate  machines  for  making  fancy,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  binding,  braids  were  first  added  to  the  plant  in 
1900,  and  equipment  of  this  sort  has  been  so  developed  that  the 
factory  has  few  counterparts  in  the  country. 

The  firm  was  incorporated  in  July,  1905,  under  the  name  of 
the  A.  H.  Rice  Company,  and  Arthur  H.  Rice  has  continued  to 
be  the  president  since  the  formation  of  the  corporation. 


250  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Limitations  of  space  and  plan  prohibit  the  description  here 
of  many  non-textile  manufactories  which  assisted  in  promoting 
local  prosperity.  The  most  ambitious  of  them  was  the  manu- 
factory of  motor  trucks,  conducted  by  Alden  Sampson  in  1905 
in  a  well-constructed  building  on  the  site  of  the  satinet  mill  of  L. 
Pomeroy's  Sons.  In  1910  the  plant  was  sold,  and  in  1911  the 
fine  equipment  was  removed  to  Detroit.  The  Berkshire  Auto- 
mobile Company,  in  1904,  and  the  Stilson  Motor  Car  Company, 
in  1907,  also  began  the  manufacture  of  motor  vehicles,  which  is 
no  longer  carried  on  in  the  city. 

Among  minor  industries,  that  of  longest  standing  has  been 
the  tannery  of  Owen  Coogan  and  Sons,  purchased  by  Mr.  Coogan 
in  1849  and  occupying  a  site,  near  the  Elm  Street  bridge,  where 
a  tannery  had  been  in  operation  as  early  as  1798.  Of  far  more 
recent  birth  are  the  Berkshire  Manufacturing  Company,  making 
men's  garments  and  succeeding  the  Berkshire  Overall  Company, 
incorporated  in  1881;  the  Jacobson  and  Brandow  Company, 
manufacturing  automobile  parts  and  developed  in  1908;  and 
the  Tel-Electric  Piano  Player  Company,  manufacturing  a  me- 
chanical piano  player  devised  by  a  Pittsfield  inventor,  John  F. 
Kelly.  Some  of  the  enterprises  discontinued  have  been  those  of 
the  Sprague-Brimmer  Company,  which  began  in  1880  to  employ 
about  one  hundred  hands  in  the  manufacture  of  shirts;  the 
W.  C.  Stevenson  Manufacturing  Company,  organized  in  1884 
to  make  weaving  shuttles  and  reeds;  and  the  Triumph  Voting 
Machine  Company,  which  began  operation  in  1904  and  of  which 
the  plant  was  removed  ten  years  later  to  Jamestown,  New 
York. 

Three  names — Stearns,  Pomeroy,  and  Barker — that  had 
been  prominent  in  the  history  of  Pittsfield  textile  manufacturing 
for  nearly  half  a  century  ceased  to  be  connected  with  it  soon 
after  1876.  In  1881  was  announced  the  failure  of  the  D.  and  H. 
Stearns  Company.  This  concern  then  owned  only  one  woolen 
mill  in  the  southwestern  part  of  the  town,  where  formerly  it 
had  conducted  five  factories.  Creditors  earned  on  this  mill  for  a 
few  years  thereafter,  but  in  1889  the  mechanical  equipment  was 
sold  to  the  firm  of  Petherbridge  and  Purnell,  who  then  operated 
the  factory  at  Bel  Air. 


INDUSTRIAL  AND  FINANCIAL  251 

Theodore  Pomeroy,  who  died  m  1881,  left  his  mill  property 
on  the  west  branch  of  the  Housatonic  to  be  managed  by  trustees 
until  his  younger  son  should  come  of  age.  The  trustees  fell  into 
dissension,  and  the  mills  into  adversity.  After  1893,  the  Pom- 
eroy Woolen  Company  had  some  measure  of  success  with  the 
factories,  but  the  enterprise  was  short-lived;  and  the  plant  was 
rented  in  1898  and  afterwards  purchased  by  Helliwell  and 
Company,  manufacturers  of  broadcloth.  Having  been  dis- 
mantled in  1912,  it  finally  passed  into  the  possession  of  the 
Eaton,  Crane,  and  Pike  Company.  The  "old  satinet  mill"  of 
L.  Pomeroy's  Sons  was  razed  in  1904. 

The  long-maintained  prosperity  of  the  woolen  mills  of  J. 
Barker  and  Brothers  at  Barkerville  began  to  languish  at  the 
time  of  the  fire  which  consumed  one  of  the  factories  in  1879. 
In  1885  the  owners  of  the  property  were  incorporated  as  the 
J.  Barker  and  Brothers  Manufacturing  Company,  and  the  pro- 
duct of  the  plant  was  cotton  and  woolen  warp,  and  dress  goods. 
Efforts  to  revive  the  industry  did  not  succeed,  and  they  were 
discontinued  by  the  company  about  1890.  Soon  afterward, 
the  mills,  which  had  once  caused  Barkerville  to  be  a  busy  factory 
village,  became  idle,  were  dismantled,  and,  with  a  single  excep- 
tion, disappeared. 

Of  the  three  brothers,  after  whom  the  village  was  named, 
Charles  T.  Barker  was  born  in  Cheshire  in  1809  and  died  at 
Pittsfield  in  April,  1884;  and  Otis  R.  Barker  was  born  in  Moriah, 
New  York,  in  1811  and  died  at  Pittsfield,  October  eighteenth, 
1904.  The  senior  partner,  John  V.  Barker,  was  born  in  Cheshire, 
March  fourteenth,  1807,  and  died  at  Pittsfield,  January  sixth, 
1896. 

John  Vandenburgh  Barker  was  a  conspicuous  power  in  busi- 
ness and  public  life.  He  began  his  career  as  a  Pittsfield  manu- 
facturer in  1832,  when,  with  his  brother,  he  bought  the  woolen 
mill  built  in  1811  by  Daniel  Stearns  in  the  southwestern  part  of 
the  town.  In  1865  the  brothers  Barker  purchased  most  of  the 
mill  property  of  D.  and  H.  Stearns,  and  in  1870  they  built  a  new 
factory.  John  V.  Barker  was  identified  with  the  beginnings  of 
the  Pittsfield  Bank  and  of  the  Berkshire  Life  Insurance  Company. 
His  integrity  was  flawless  and  his  judgment  was  deliberate  and 


252  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

sound.  In  1849,  1862,  and  1867  he  represented  the  town  in  the 
General  Court,  where  he  instituted  valuable  reforms  in  railroad 
legislation.  The  final  years  of  his  life  were  shadowed  by  business 
reverses,  but  warmed  by  the  gratitude  and  respect  of  those  able 
to  remember  how  much  his  success  and  industry  had  contributed 
to  the  welfare  of  the  town. 

The  cotton  factory,  erected  in  1832  a  short  distance  south 
of  the  Elm  Street  bridge  and  near  the  site  of  the  first  mill  dam 
built  in  the  town,  was  owned  in  1876  by  Martin  Van  Sickler. 
He  died  in  1891,  having  long  outlived  his  once  prosperous  enter- 
prise. Since  1884  the  veteran  building  has  been  occasionally 
occupied  by  miscellaneous  industrial  concerns. 

On  Wahconah  Street,  the  woolen  mill  of  the  Bel  Air  Manu- 
facturing Company,  which  failed  in  1884,  was  operated  after 
that  year  by  James  O.  Purnell  and  W.  T.  Petherbridge,  under 
the  company's  trustee.  The  output  was  fancy  cassimeres.  In 
1890  the  factory  was  shut  down,  Messrs.  Purnell  and  Pether- 
bridge having  commenced  the  business  of  making  yarn  on 
Brown  Street,  under  the  name  of  the  Pittsfield  Manufacturing 
Company,  incorporated  in  1887.  The  Bel  Air  mill  stood  idle 
until  it  was  rented  and,  in  1904,  purchased  by  James  and  E.  H. 
Wilson,  who  used  it  as  auxiliary  to  their  factory  next  north  of 
it  on  the  stream. 

The  two  factories  of  Jabez  L.  Peck  on  Onota  Brook,  the 
upper  mill  producing  flannel  and  the  lower  producing  cotton 
warp,  continued  in  successful  operation  after  1876  under  Mr. 
Peck's  direction  and  after  1890  under  that  of  the  J.  L.  and  T.  D. 
Peck  Manufacturing  Company.  Jabez  L.  Peck  died  in  1895, 
and  his  son,  Thomas  D.  Peck,  succeeded  him  in  the  presidency  of 
the  company.  Ralph  D.  Gillett  of  Westfield  became  president 
and  treasurer  in  1909.  Meanwhile,  the  output  of  both  mills 
had  included  cotton  warps,  cassimeres,  and  thread.  In  1910 
the  company  ceased  to  be  active,  and  the  factories  were  closed. 

The  Berkshire  Woolen  and  Worsted  Company  was  organized 
in  1910,  and  took  possession  of  the  upper  mill  on  Onota  Brook, 
formerly  the  property  of  the  J,  L.  and  T.  D.  Peck  Manufacturing 
Company.  In  1911  this  plant  was  enlarged,  improved,  and 
equipped  with  new  buildings  and  machinery  by  the  Berkshire 


INDUSTRIAL  AND  FINANCIAL  253 

Woolen  and  Worsted  Company  at  an  expenditure  of  about 
$150,000.  The  product  was  fancy  cassimeres,  and  during  the 
early  period  of  the  great  European  war  army  cloths  for  use 
abroad  were  profitably  manufactured.  The  number  of  hands 
employed  was  approximately  450  in  1915.  The  enterprise 
possessed  the  aggressive  vigor  of  youth,  and  was  a  material 
accession  to  the  city's  industries. 

The  first  president  of  the  Berkshire  Woolen  and  Worsted 
Company  was  Ralph  D.  Gillett  of  Westfield.  He  was  succeeded, 
after  his  death  on  October  fourteenth,  1913,  by  Edgar  L.  Gillett. 
A  few  years  ago,  the  corporate  name  was  altered  to  the  Berkshire 
Woolen  Company.  The  present  general  manager,  James  R. 
Savery,  has  served  the  company  in  that  capacity  since  its  in- 
corporation. 

Passing  now  from  the  youngest  to  the  oldest  of  Pittsfield's 
textile  mills,  we  find  that  in  1876  the  principal  product  of  the 
factory  of  the  historic  Pontoosuc  Woolen  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany was  blankets,  with  which  for  several  years  the  company 
supplied  the  Pullman  sleeping  cars.  But  the  policy  of  the  Pon- 
toosuc company,  since  its  factory  first  went  into  operation  in 
1827,  has  been  to  change  its  output  in  order  to  take  advantage 
of  varying  markets.  The  product  at  present  is  woolen  cloth 
for  men's  and  women's  garments.  Improvements  in  the  plant 
since  1876  have  included  a  new  main  weave  shed,  a  new  card 
and  spinning  room,  a  new  boiler  house,  and  almost  a  complete 
re-equipment  of  machinery.  The  persons  under  employment 
now  number  about  450.  Military  cloths  for  foreign  armies  have 
recently  been  produced  at  the  mill  in  large  quantities.  A  main- 
stay of  Pittsfield  industrial  life  uninterruptedly  for  nearly 
ninety  years,  the  Pontoosuc  Woolen  Manufacturing  Company 
was  in  1876  under  the  presidency  of  Ensign  H.  Kellogg,  chosen 
to  that  office  in  1861.  Mr.  Kellogg  was  succeeded  in  1882  by 
Thaddeus  Clapp,  in  1891  by  William  R.  Plunkett,  in  1903  by 
David  Campbell,  and  in  1911  by  Henry  A.  Francis,  who  is  now 
the  president. 

Thaddeus  Clapp,  who  served  the  company  either  as  general 
agent,  superintendent,  or  president  for  twenty-five  years,  was 
born  in  Pittsfield  in  1827  and  died  there,  November  fifth,  1890. 


254  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

His  father.  Col.  Thaddeus  Clapp,  had  been  factory  manager  at 
Pontoosuc  from  1827  to  1860.  Mr.  Clapp  was  a  bustling,  cos- 
mopolitan man,  who  traveled  extensively  on  business  missions, 
and  whose  observant  mind  was  the  means  of  conveying  to 
Pittsfield  many  progressive  notions  about  other  than  industrial 
matters  and  of  thus  broadening  the  social  horizon  of  the  town. 

Another  important  officer  of  the  company  during  the  same 
period  was  J.  Dwight  Francis,  who  purchased  an  interest  in  the 
concern  in  1864  and  acted  as  assistant  superintendent  or  super- 
intendent from  that  year  until  his  death,  on  September  ninth, 
1886.  Mr.  Francis  was  born  in  Pittsfield  in  1837.  His  an- 
cestors were  some  of  the  vigorous  settlers  of  the  "West  Part" 
of  the  town;  and  he  was  an  energetic,  industrious  citizen,  es- 
pecially popular  among  the  people  employed  at  Pontoosuc. 

The  woolen  mill  erected  near  Onota  Brook  in  1863  by  the 
firm  of  S.  N.  and  C.  Russell  was  conducted  in  1876  by  a  firm 
bearing  the  same  name,  of  which  the  managing  partners  were 
Solomon  N.  Russell  and  his  brother  Zeno.  The  latter  died  in 
1881.  In  1886  the  S.  N.  and  C.  Russell  Manufacturing  Company 
was  organized,  Solomon  N.  Russell  being  the  first  president.  A 
new  weave  shed  had  been  built  in  1880;  and  at  this  period  the 
product  was  chiefly  union  cassimeres.  The  company  built  a 
new  boiler  house  in  1893,  an  addition  to  the  finishing  and  spin- 
ning rooms  in  1900  and  one  to  the  weave  shed  in  1910,  and  a 
new  shipping  room  in  1915.  The  plant,  constantly  and  pro- 
gressively improved,  now  employs  about  250  hands,  and  the 
output  is  piece-dye  woolens,  kerseys,  broadcloths,  and  thibets. 
The  continuity  of  successful  operation  maintained  at  this  manu- 
factory has  been  remarkable,  and  it  has  been  also  distinguished 
by  continuity  of  employment  and  control.  iVmong  those  on 
the  pay  roll  in  1916  were  eleven  men  whose  years  of  continuous 
service  in  the  mill  collectively  numbered  296.  Solomon  N. 
Russell  was  followed  in  the  presidency  by  his  brother,  Franklin 
W.  Russell,  in  1899;  and  Henry  R.  Russell,  now  the  president, 
succeeded  Franklin  W.  Russell  in   1908. 

Solomon  Nash  Russell,  to  whom  the  company  owed  its 
sound  establishment,  was  born  in  Conway,  Massachusetts,  in 
1822,  and  came  to  Pittsfield  with  his  father,  Solomon  Lincoln 


INDUSTRIAL  AND  FINANCIAL  255 

Russell,  in  1827.  In  1845,  with  his  brother  Charles  as  a  partner, 
he  converted  a  little  tool  shop  on  Onota  Brook  into  a  manufac- 
tory of  cotton  batting,  and  there  began  a  business  career  which 
culminated  in  the  success  of  the  S.  N.  and  C.  Russell  Manufac- 
turing Company.  On  February  sixteenth,  1899,  he  died  at 
Pittsfield. 

Mr.  Russell  accepted  many  opportunities  of  adding  to  the 
general  prosperity  of  the  town.  In  partnership  with  E.  D. 
Jones,  he  greatly  improved  North  Street  by  the  erection  of 
Central  Block,  and  he  stimulated  local  industry  by  providing  a 
shop  for  the  once-important  Terry  Clock  Company.  He  was  a 
sagacious  and  respected  member  of  the  board  of  selectmen. 
Benevolent  and  liberal-minded,  he  promoted  generously  the 
foundation  of  Pilgrim  Memorial  Church,  and  he  was  a  powerful 
supporter  of  the  House  of  Mercy,  which  by  his  will  came  into 
ownership  of  the  spacious  tract  of  land  where  stands  its  present 
hospital  on  North  Street. 

Although  undemonstrative  and  a  user  of  few  words,  he  was 
warm  in  friendship,  and  of  this  fact  his  mill  hands  were  no  less 
conscious  than  were  the  leading  citizens  of  Pittsfield.  For  half 
a  century,  most  of  the  people  of  the  factory  village  which  bears 
his  name  depended  upon  him  not  only  for  employment  but  also 
for  private  counsel.  This  he  gave  willingly,  but  not  Hghtly, 
for  he  reached  his  decisions,  as  he  had  attained  his  success,  with 
patience  and  caution.  Like  his  father,  he  had  a  broad  notion 
of  the  duties  of  citizenship,  and  he  was  content  neither  to  shirk 
them,  nor  to  condone  the  shirking  of  them  by  others. 

After  the  suspension  of  operations  at  the  woolen  mill  of  the 
Taconic  Manufacturing  Company  in  1873,  its  factory,  which 
had  been  built  in  1856  on  the  site  of  Lemuel  Pomeroy's  musket 
shop,  remained  idle  until  1880.  It  was  then  leased  and  operated 
by  James  Wilson  of  Pittsfield  and  Michael  Glennon  of  Dalton, 
who  manufactured  union  cassimeres  and  employed  about  125 
hands.  In  1886  Mr.  Glennon  was  succeeded  in  the  partnership 
by  Arthur  Horton  of  New  York.  The  firm  of  Wilson  and  Hor- 
ton  discontinued  business  at  the  mill  in  1898.  The  partnership 
of  James  and  E.  H.  Wilson  put  the  factory  again  in  operation  in 
1900;    and  it  has  since  been  steadily  busy.     The  number  of 


256  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

persons  now  employed  is  600.  The  output  is  woolen  and  woolen- 
and-worsted  cloth  for  garments,  the  annual  production  being 
approximately  1,000,000  yards.  From  October,  1914,  to  De- 
cember, 1915,  the  concern  manufactured  about  125,000  military 
blankets  and  750,000  yards  of  uniform  cloth  for  some  of  the 
European  armies.  In  1904  the  plant  was  greatly  enlarged  by  the 
construction  of  a  spacious  addition  to  the  Taconic  mill  and  by  the 
purchase  of  the  Bel  Air  factory,  a  short  distance  south  of  it. 
The  Bel  Air  building  was  then  repaired  and  refitted  by  the 
Messrs.  Wilson,  and  utilized  as  an  auxiliary  plant. 

The  former  Osceola  woolen  mill  in  southwestern  Pittsfield, 
making  union  cassimeres,  was  operated  in  1876  by  the  firm  of 
Tillotson  and  Collins.  Of  this  firm,  Dwight  M.  Collins  was 
the  junior  member;  while  the  controlling  interest,  bequeathed 
to  his  brothers  by  Otis  L.  Tillotson,  was  represented  by  William 
E.  Tillotson.  Mr.  Collins  soon  afterward  retired  from  the 
partnership,  wherein  he  was  succeeded,  in  1882,  by  John  T. 
Power,  who  died  in  1890.  Mr.  Tillotson  conducted  the  mill  as 
an  independent  concern  until  1901,  when  it  became  a  part  of 
the  property  of  the  W.  E.  Tillotson  Manufacturing  Company, 
organized  in  that  year.  Its  product,  in  1915,  was  fancy  worsteds 
for  men's  wear.  As  an  auxiliary  to  this  factory,  Mr.  Tillotson 
in  1889  built  and  began  to  operate  a  mill  for  the  manufacture 
of  worsted  goods  on  Fourth  Street,  near  Silver  Lake,  which  has 
since   been   several   times  enlarged. 

In  1882  Dwight  M.  Collins  established  a  small  knitting 
shop  in  Central  Block  on  North  Street.  William  E.  Tillotson 
and  John  T.  Power  each  had  an  interest  in  the  concern,  which 
was  later  incorporated  under  the  name  of  D.  M.  Collins  and 
Company.  The  product  was  knitted  underwear.  The  enter- 
prise thrived,  and  in  1890  the  plant  was  removed  to  buildings 
erected  for  it  near  Silver  Lake.  There  the  rapid  expansion  of 
the  business  of  D.  M.  Collins  and  Company  caused  additions 
to  the  knitting  shops  and  the  employment  of  several  hundred 
hands. 

In  1901  the  W.  E.  Tillotson  Manufacturing  Company  was 
incorporated,  which  consolidated  the  manufacturing  interests  of 
Mr.  Tillotson  and  of  D.  M.  Collins  and  Company.     The  result 


INDUSTRIAL  AND  FINANCIAL  257 

of  the  amalgamation  was  increased  activity,  in  both  the  weaviiig 
and  the  knitting  branches  of  the  business,  which  gave  employ- 
ment to  approximately  800  persons  in  1915.  The  Silver  Lake 
plant  had  been  so  developed  that  it  was  the  largest  textile 
manufactory  in  the  city;  and,  of  the  twc  main  shops,  one  was 
450,  and  the  other,  with  a  height  of  three  stories,  was  200  feet 
in  length.  Louis  Hollingworth,  now  the  president  and  general 
manager  of  the  company,  succeeded  in  those  offices  William  E. 
Tillotson,  who  died  in   1906. 

Mr.  Tillotson  strengthened  and  expanded  the  industrial 
prosperity  of  the  city  more  effectually  than  did  any  other  in- 
dividual textile  manufacturer  during  the  quarter-century  follow- 
ing 1890.  He  was  born  in  Granville,  Massachusetts,  November 
sixteenth,  1842;  and  he  first  came  to  Pittsfield,  a  poor  boy, 
about  1852.  He  was  in  Chicago,  engaged  in  the  business  of  a 
stove  dealer,  from  1867  to  1873.  In  the  latter  year  he  returned 
to  Pittsfield  to  take  charge  of  the  Tillotson  interest  in  the  Osceola 
mill.  His  success  with  that  factory  and  with  the  shops  which 
he  established  near  Silver  Lake  has  been  herein  narrated.  That 
success  was  peculiarly  gratifying  to  local  pride  and  in  a  sense 
reassuring  at  a  time  when  the  absorbent  growth  of  the  Stanley 
Electric  Manufacturing  Company  and  the  likelihood  of  the 
removal  of  its  shops  from  Pittsfield  caused  apprehensive  citizens 
to  believe  that  it  was  important  to  diversify  local  indsutries. 

William  E.  Tillotson  was  both  shrewd  and  bold,  at  once  an 
assiduous  worker  and  a  courageous  investor,  and  he  amassed  a 
large  fortune.  Taciturn  and  reserved,  he  was  quick  and  positive 
in  decision  and  action,  nor  were  his  decisions  and  actions  de- 
termined by  anybody  else.  Men  often  found  behind  his  brisk, 
sharp  demeanor  the  heart  of  a  tolerant  and  helpful  friend, 
stanch  in  foul  as  in  fair  weather;  and  his  intimates  were  aware 
of  a  genial,  quaint  humor  which  warmed  his  machine-like  faculty 
of  accomplishment.  His  death  occurred  at  Pittsfield,  Novem- 
ber thirtieth,  1906.  He  was  unmarried  and  he  died  intestate; 
his  heirs  gave  abundant  practical  expression  to  the  community 
of  his  charitable  and  public-spirited  impulses. 

Dwight  M.  Collins,  long-time  a  business  associate  of  Mr. 
Tillotson,  was  born  at  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  in  1835  and 


258  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

died  at  Pittsfield,  January  twenty-ninth,  1912.  He  joined  the 
ranks  of  local  manufacturers  in  1865.  He  was  a  quiet,  reflective 
man  of  high  principles,  who  made  a  careful  study  of  his  business, 
but  did  not  allow  it  to  engross  him.  From  1901  until  1907  he 
was  vice-president  of  the  W.  E.  Tillotson  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany. 

In  1882  the  superintendent  of  the  knitting  shop  of  D.  M. 
Collins  and  Company  was  John  H.  Musgrove,  and  in  1895  Mr. 
Musgrove  began  to  operate  a  similar  establishment  in  the  Noble 
block  on  West  Street,  employing  fifteen  hands.  In  1905  the 
Musgrove  Knitting  Company,  of  which  the  presidents  since  its 
organization  have  been  Joseph  H.  Wood  and  Michael  Casey, 
moved  this  plant  to  the  former  Kellogg  Steam  Power  building  on 
Curtis  Street.  There  the  knitting  company,  manufacturing 
cotton  underwear,  now  employs  about  165  people  and  has  an 
annual  product  of  approximately  100,000  dozen. 

In  1876  the  annual  output  at  the  works  of  the  Pittsfield  Coal 
Gas  Company  on  Water  Street  was  387,000  feet  of  gas,  supplied 
to  consumers  through  418  meters.  In  1915  the  number  of 
meters  was  9,145,  and  the  year's  product  of  gas  at  the  company's 
works  on  lower  East  Street  was  209,142,000  feet.  Most  of  this 
large  increase  was  gained  after  1900,  and  was  due  to  the  growing 
use  of  gas  for  fuel.  Land  was  purchased  by  the  company  on 
lower  East  Street  in  1901,  and  the  new  works  first  supplied  gas 
in  January,  1902.  The  chief  ofiicers  of  the  company  in  1876 
were  Robert  W.  Adam,  president,  and  William  R.  Plunkett, 
treasurer.  Upon  the  death  of  Mr.  Plunkett  in  1903,  H.  A. 
Dunbar,  the  present  treasurer,  assumed  office.  William  L. 
Adam,  now  the  president,  succeeded  Robert  W.  Adam  in  1911. 
The  present  manager  is  H.  C.  Crafts,  under  whose  direction  the 
recent  notable  expansion  of  the  business  of  the  company  has 
been  effected. 

The  first  concern  in  the  town  to  supply  light  by  means  of 
electricity  was  the  Pittsfield  Electric  Light  Company,  incor- 
porated in  1883  under  the  laws  of  the  state  of  Maine.  The 
officers  were  Alexander  Kennedy,  president,  and  Charles  E. 
Merrill,  treasurer  and  general  manager.  In  1885  the  company 
relinquished  its  Maine  charter  and  was  reincorporated  in  Massa- 


INDUSTRIAL  AND  FINANCIAL  259 

chusetts.  The  Brush  arc  lamp  was  then  the  only  electric  light- 
ing device  in  local  use,  and  the  company  supplied  current  from  a 
central  station  in  Merrill's  woodworking  shop  on  North  Street. 
Another  electric  lighting  concern,  called  the  Pittsfield  Illuminat- 
ing Company,  was  organized  in  1887,  under  the  presidency  of 
William  Stanley  of  Great  Barrington.  This  company  had  its 
power  plant  in  the  shop  of  Robbins  and  Gamwell  on  West 
Street  and  introduced  the  Edison  incandescent  lamp.  The 
companies  soon  became  allied,  and  in  1890  they  were  formally 
united  in  the  Pittsfield  Electric  Company,  which  was  incorporated 
in  that  year  and  purchased  all  the  stock  of  the  two  pioneer  com- 
panies. Alexander  Kennedy,  at  present  serving  as  president 
of  the  Pittsfield  Electric  Company,  has  continuously  held  that 
office  since  the  incorporation  of  the  concern.  William  A.  Whittle- 
sey was  treasurer  and  general  manager  until  his  death  in  1906. 
Mr.  Kennedy  then  became  treasurer,  and  the  duties  of  general 
manager  were  assumed  by  Mr.  Whittlesey's  son,  William  A. 
Whittlesey,  2nd,  who  now  performs  them. 

The  central  station  in  1890  was  in  the  building  erected  for 
the  purpose  by  Mr.  Whittlesey,  at  the  corner  of  Eagle  Street 
and  Renne  Avenue,  and  this  building  is  still  so  utilized.  An 
auxiliary  power  station  near  Silver  Lake  was  built  by  the  com- 
pany in  1906,  and  was  enlarged  two  years  later.  The  original 
power  capacity  of  the  company's  plant  in  1890  was  500  horse- 
power, and  this  had  been  increased  in  1915  to  an  aggregate 
horse-power  of  3,800,  in  the  main  and  auxiliary  stations.  In 
other  respects,  too,  the  company  has  improved  its  equipment, 
keeping  pace  with  that  remarkable  development  of  electrical 
apparatus  in  the  United  States  which  has  been  appreciated  by 
few  communities  so  thoroughly  as  by  the  community  of  Pittsfield. 

The  growth  of  local  prosperity  since  1876  is  well-indicated 
by  a  comparison  of  the  aggregate  deposits  in  the  local  banks. 
The  town  had  two  national  banks  in  1876 — the  Agricultural  and 
the  Pittsfield.  The  amount  on  deposit  in  these  banks  was 
$623,677.10,  on  January  first,  1876.  The  Third  National  Bank 
was  chartered  in  1881,  and  the  Berkshire  Loan  and  Trust  Com- 
pany in  1895;  and  on  January  first,  1915,  the  aggregate  de- 
posits in  those  two  institutions  and  in  the  Agricultural  and  the 


860  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Pittsfield  National  Banks  were  $5,012,568.02.  The  town's  only 
savings  bank  in  1876  was  the  Berkshire  County,  which,  on 
January  first  of  that  year,  had  deposits  of  $1,920,083  and  5,620 
depositors.  The  City  Savings  Bank  having  been  chartered  in 
1893,  the  aggregate  deposits  in  Pittsfield's  two  savings  banks 
were  $10,720,133  on  January  first,  1915,  and  the  total  number 
of  depositors  was  29,582. 

Chartered  as  a  state  bank  in  1818,  the  Agricultural  National 
Bank  in  1876  was  under  the  presidency  of  Ensign  H.  Kellogg, 
who  served  until  his  death  in  1882.  He  was  then  succeeded  by 
John  R.  AVarriner.  Mr.  Warriner  was  a  native  of  Pittsfield, 
where  he  was  born  in  1827.  Having  been  employed  by  banks 
in  Springfield  and  Holyoke,  he  became  cashier  of  the  Agricultural 
Bank  in  1853,  and  remained  with  that  institution  until  he  died, 
on  June  nineteenth,  1889.  He  was  a  painstaking,  sagacious 
man,  implicitly  trusted  and  greatly  respected,  and  his  services 
for  thirty-five  years  as  cashier  and  president  of  the  bank  were  of 
sound  value  not  only  to  the  institution  but  to  the  entire  com- 
munity. Mr.  Warriner's  brother,  James  L.  Warriner,  was  presi- 
dent of  the  Agricultural  National  Bank  from  1889  to  1898,  and 
W.  Murray  Crane  of  Dalton  from  1898  to  1904.  Irving  D. 
Ferrey,  now  the  president,  succeeded  Mr.  Crane  in  1904,  having 
been  uninterruptedly  in  the  bank's  service  since  1862.  John  R. 
Warriner  was  followed  as  cashier  by  Mr.  Ferrey  in  1882;  and 
Frank  W.  Dutton,  the  present  cashier,  was  chosen  to  the  office  in 
1904. 

In  1876,  the  banking  rooms  of  the  Agricultural  were  those 
now  occupied  by  the  Third  National,  on  the  ground  floor  of  the 
building  of  the  Berkshire  Life  Insurance  Company,  north  of  the 
main  entrance.  The  erection  of  the  handsome  white  marble 
structure  on  the  east  side  of  North  Street,  between  Fenn  and 
Dunham  Streets,  which  is  at  present  occupied  in  part  by  the 
Agricultural,  was  begun  by  the  bank  in  June,  1908,  and  finished 
in  October,  1909.  The  architects  were  Messrs.  Mowbray  and 
Uffinger  of  New  York;  and  the  result  of  their  labors  and  of  those 
of  the  bank's  building  committee  was  a  notable  contribution  to 
the  beauty  of  the  business  center  of  the  city.  The  cost  of  the 
building  was  $250,000. 


INDUSTRIAL  AND  FINANCIAL  261 

For  forty-seven  years  the  Pittsfield  National  Bank  has  oc- 
cupied the  same  banking  rooms,  which  have,  however,  been  re- 
modeled and  greatly  enlarged.  In  1876,  the  president  was  Julius 
Rockwell  of  Lenox,  who  had  been  elected  in  1858  and  who  served 
until  his  death  in  1888.  Born  in  Colebrook,  Connecticut,  in 
1805,  he  became  a  resident  of  Pittsfield  in  1830,  and  in  1865 
removed  his  home  to  Lenox.  There  he  died.  May  nineteenth, 
1888,  and  in  the  history  of  that  town,  as  well  as  in  Smith's 
"History  of  Pittsfield",  may  be  found  the  honorable  record  of 
the  high  distinction  which  he  achieved  as  a  citizen,  a  lawyer,  a 
legislator  at  Boston  and  Washington,  and  a  magistrate  of  the 
Superior  Court  of  Massachusetts. 

Judge  Rockwell's  successor  in  the  presidency  of  the  Pittsfield 
National  Bank  was  Zenas  Crane  of  Dalton,  who  held  the  oflSce 
until  1892  and  who  was  followed  by  Andrew  J.  Waterman. 
James  Wilson  became  president  of  the  bank  in  1897,  William  W. 
Gamwell  in  1899,  and  George  H.  Tucker,  now  the  president,  be- 
gan to  serve  in  1907.  Edward  S.  Francis,  the  cashier  in  1876, 
was  succeeded  in  1893  by  Henry  A.  Brewster.  In  1902  George 
H.  Tucker  was  chosen  to  the  office;  and  the  present  cashier, 
Edson  Bonney,  was  elected  in  1907. 

Incorporated  in  1881,  the  Third  National  Bank  had  Henry 
W.  Taft  for  its  first  president.  Ralph  B.  Bardwell,  now  the 
president,  succeeded  Mr.  Taft  in  1904.  Upon  the  original 
board  of  directors  were  Solomon  N.  Russell,  Byron  Weston, 
John  T.  Power,  Edward  D.  Jones,  J.  D wight  Francis,  Charles  W. 
Kellogg,  and  William  H.  Hall.  The  first  cashier  was  Ralph  B. 
Bardwell,  who  was  followed  in  1905  by  the  present  cashier, 
William  H.  Perkins.  The  Third  National  occupied  rooms  in  the 
southwestern  part  of  the  first  story  of  the  Berkshire  Life  building 
until  1910.  The  bank  was  then  removed  to  its  present  rooms 
on  North  Street  in  the  same  building,  on  the  north  side  of  the 
ground  floor. 

The  Berkshire  Loan  and  Trust  Company  was  incorporated 
in  1895,  and  began  business  in  the  quarters  which  it  occupies  at 
present,  in  the  north  part  of  the  ground  story  of  the  building  of 
the  Berkshire  County  Savings  Bank.  The  original  directors 
were  Franklin  K.  Paddock,  DeWitt  Bruce,  Charles  Atwater, 


262  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

A.  A.  Mills,  W.  H.  Sloan,  Henry  Colt,  Jacob  Gimlich,  C.  C. 
Gamwell,  P.  H.  Dolan,  George  W.  Bailey,  George  K.  Baird, 
Charles  E.  Hibbard,  Benjamin  M.  England,  T.  N.  Enright,  and 
Charles  W.  Kellogg.  The  first  president  was  Franklin  K.  Pad- 
dock. Charles  W.  Kellogg  succeeded  to  the  presidency  in  1898, 
and  was  followed  in  1907  by  Charles  E.  Hibbard,  who  is  now  in 
office.  Charles  W.  Kellogg  was  the  first  treasurer,  and  Charles 
W.  Seager,  the  present  treasurer,  followed  Mr.  Kellogg  in  1898. 

In  1876,  the  banking  rooms  of  the  Berkshire  County  Savings 
Bank  were  on  the  north  side  of  the  second  floor  of  the  building 
of  the  Berkshire  Life  Insurance  Company.  The  bank  in  1894 
began  the  erection  of  its  building  on  the  corner  of  Park  Square 
and  North  Street,  and  occupied  the  south  part  of  the  ground 
story  of  the  new  building  in  the  following  year.  The  architect 
was  Francis  R.  Allen  of  Boston. 

Julius  Rockwell,  president  of  the  Berkshire  County  Savings 
Bank  in  1876,  had  been  elected  to  that  office  in  1863,  and  was 
followed  in  1888  by  John  R.  Warriner.  Mr.  Warriner's  successor 
was  Joseph  Tucker,  who  was  chosen  president  in  1889;  and 
Arthur  H.  Rice,  now  at  the  head  of  the  institution,  followed 
Judge  Tucker  in  1908.  Incorporated  in  1846,  the  bank  had  for  a 
period  of  sixty-five  years  only  two  treasurers.  Robert  W.  Adam, 
elected  treasurer  in  1865,  succeeded  the  first  treasurer,  James 
Warriner;  and  Mr.  Adam  retained  the  position  until  his  death 
in  1911.  He  was  followed  in  the  treasurership  by  his  son, 
William  L.  Adam,  who  is  at  present  in  office. 

The  City  Savings  Bank  was  chartered  in  1893,  when  the 
officers  were  Francis  W.  Rockwell,  president;  Hiram  B.  Welling- 
ton, treasurer;  and  A.  J.  Waterman,  A.  W.  Eaton,  O.  W.  Rob- 
bins,  W.  M.  Mercer,  John  S.  Wolfe,  A.  A.  Mills,  Jacob  Gimlich, 
W.  F.  Gale,  Henry  R.  Peirson,  Richard  A.  Burget,  and  Benjamin 
M.  England,  trustees.  On  June  first,  1893,  the  bank  began 
business  in  part  of  a  store  in  a  block  at  North  and  Summer 
Streets,  where  the  banking  rooms  originally  occupied  a  floor  space 
of  eight  by  twenty -five  feet,  and  in  1899  the  institution  moved 
its  quarters  to  the  corner  of  North  Street  and  Eagle  Square. 
In  1906  the  City  Savings  Bank  bought  the  block  at  the  north 
corner  of  North  and  Fenn  Streets,  and  two  years  later  remodeled 


INDUSTRIAL  AND  FINANCIAL  263 

that  building,  wherein  its  present  banking  rooms  on  the  ground 
floor  were  occupied  by  the  institution  in  February,  1908.  Francis 
W.  Rockwell  has  continued  to  serve  as  president  of  the  bank 
since  incorporation.  In  1913  Hiram  B.  Wellington  was  suc- 
ceeded as  treasurer  by  H.  Calvin  Ford,  who  is  now  in  office. 

Besides  the  savings  banks,  encouragers  of  thrift  have  been 
the  two  co-operative  banks,  the  Pittsfield,  incorporated  in 
1889,  and  the  Union,  in  1911,  both  of  which  are  now  successfully 
conducted  in  their  respective  offices  on  North  Street. 

Established  in  Pittsfield  in  1835,  the  Berkshire  Mutual  Fire 
Insurance  Company  in  1876  had  headquarters  in  West's  block, 
at  the  corner  of  Park  Square  and  North  Street,  which  it  occupied 
until  the  demolition  of  the  building  in  1894.  From  1895  until 
1909,  the  company  occupied  offices  in  the  building  erected  on 
the  site  of  West's  block  by  the  Berkshire  County  Savings  Bank; 
and  when  the  Agricultural  Bank  building  was  ready  for  occu- 
pancy, the  fire  insurance  company  moved  to  its  present  quarters 
therein.  The  president  in  1876  was  John  C.  West,  who  was 
succeeded  in  1879  by  Jabez  L.  Peck,  in  1895  by  Frank  W.  Hins- 
dale, and  in  1906  by  Henry  R,  Peirson,  the  present  president. 
Albert  B.  Root  was  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the  company  in 
1876.  John  M.  Stevenson  followed  Mr.  Root  in  1879  and  served 
until  1912,  when  Robert  A.  Barbour,  who  is  now  the  secretary 
and  treasurer,  assumed  that  office.  During  this  period,  the 
growth  of  the  business  of  the  Berkshire  Mutual  Fire  Insurance 
Company  was  highly  creditable  to  the  management,  for  on 
September  first,  1875,  the  number  of  policies  was  4,150  and  the 
amount  at  risk  was  $5,332,863,  while  on  January  first,  1915, 
the  number  of  policies  was  16,724  and  the  amount  at  risk, 
$20,396,527. 

The  officer  of  longest  service  in  the  history  of  the  veteran 
company  was  John  M.  Stevenson,  who  was  born  in  Cambridge, 
New  York,  August  thirty-first,  1846,  and  died  at  Asheville, 
North  Carolina,  March  twentieth,  1916.  He  became  a  citizen 
of  Pittsfield  in  1872.  Mr.  Stevenson  was  a  neighborly,  indus- 
trious, public-spirited  man,  who  served  the  community  faithfully 
in  many  ways.  His  efforts  promoted  the  establishment  of  the 
first  street  railway  in  Pittsfield;    he  was  a  good  friend  and  a 


264  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

useful  citizen;  and  he  preserved  to  the  last  an  unusually  youthful 
cheeriness  in  social  intercourse. 

On  January  first,  1876,  the  Berkshire  Life  Insurance  Com- 
pany, now  the  most  important  and  widely  known  financial  in- 
stitution in  Pittsfield,  had  4,813  policies  outstanding  for  an  ag- 
gregate insurance  of  $10,940,216.  The  company's  outstanding 
policies  on  January  first,  1915,  numbered  31,449,  and  represented 
an  insurance  of  $76,513,988.  Thomas  F.  Plunkett,  the  second 
president  of  the  company,  died  in  1875,  and  was  succeeded  in 
1876  by  Edward  Boltwood.  Mr.  Boltwood,  who  was  born  in 
Amherst,  Massachusetts,  in  1839,  became  a  resident  of  Pittsfield 
in  1870,  and  died  in  1878,  at  Cairo,  Egypt.  He  was  followed  in 
the  presidency  of  the  Berkshire  Life  Insurance  Company  by  Wil- 
liam R.  Plunkett  in  1878,  by  James  \V.  Hull  in  1903,  and  by 
William  D.  Wyman  in  1911.  The  vice-presidents  since  1876 
have  been  James  M.  Barker,  Walter  F.  Hawkins,  William  D. 
Wyman,  and  James  W.  Hull;  the  treasurers,  Edward  Boltwood, 
James  W.  Hull,  William  D.  Wyman,  and  Joseph  F.  Titus;  and 
the  secretaries,  James  W.  Hull,  Theodore  L.  Allen,  and  Robert 
H.  Davenport.  The  present  officers  are  William  D.  Wyman, 
president,  Walter  F.  Hawkins,  vice-president,  Joseph  F.  Titus, 
treasurer,  and  Robert  H.  Davenport,  secretary.  Since  the 
completion  of  its  building,  in  1868,  the  company  has  maintained 
its  home  office  on  the  second  floor.  The  building  was  remodeled 
and  enlarged  in  1911. 

The  field  covered  by  the  agencies  of  the  Berkshire  Life  In- 
surance Company  includes  most  of  the  northern  states  of  the 
Union;  and  its  prosperity,  conservatively  achieved,  has  been  of 
substantial  assistance  to  the  general  prosperity  of  the  city. 
Several  similar  institutions  in  the  United  States  are  organized 
upon  a  far  larger  scale,  of  course;  but  among  them  this  Pittsfield 
company,  founded  and  managed  in  its  youth  by  men  of  a  country 
town,  stands  well  toward  the  front,  in  respect  of  excellence  of 
reputation  for  reliable  efficiency  and  watchful  management. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
ELECTRICAL  MANUFACTURING 

THE  claim  of  Pittsfield  to  the  title  of  pioneer  in  woolen 
manufacture  in  the  United  States  was  more  familiar  in 
the  last  century  than  now.  The  claim  rests  upon  the  ap- 
parent priority  in  this  country  of  Arthur  Scholfield's  little  shop 
for  the  making  of  carding  machines,  near  the  West  Street  bridge 
over  the  Housatonic,  where  he  set  up  his  first  carding  machine  in 
1801,  and  a  few  years  later  began  the  manufacture  also  of  looms. 
Mr.  Scholfield's  machinery  was  widely  used,  and  at  least  contrib- 
uted essentially  to  the  establishment  in  America  of  the  business 
of  making  woolen  cloth. 

Pittsfield's  claim  to  national  priority  in  the  manufacture  of 
machinery  for  the  transmission  of  electrical  energy  by  high 
voltage  over  long  distances  is  far  more  securely  based.  The 
first  polyphase,  alternating  current  generator  installed  in  the 
United  States  for  power  transmission  was  made  in  Pittsfield. 
This  machine  was  presented,  as  a  relic,  to  the  Museum  of  Natural 
History  and  Art  in  1914.  Few  historical  exhibits  therein  are  of 
more  significance  to  the  city.  None  are  of  more  interest  to 
American  manufacturers;  for  from  this  generator  may  be  said 
to  have  descended  the  power  plants  of  the  continent,  sending 
their  gigantic  energy  hundreds  of  miles  to  accomplish  hundreds 
of  results.  The  development  of  the  woolen  industry  through 
Scholfield's  machinery  was  of  signal  importance;  but  of  im- 
portance even  more  momentous  was  the  later  development  of 
many  sorts  of  industries  through  the  machinery  designed  and 
made  in  Pittsfield  by  the  Stanley  Electric  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany. 

In  1887  William  Stanley,  Jr.  was  a  resident  of  Great  Bar- 
rington,  where  he  had  placed  in  operation,  on  a  very  modest 
scale  and  with  fewer  than  twenty  customers,  a  lighting  plant 


266  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

which  utilized  the  system  of  the  alternating  current  in  transmis- 
sion. It  will  be  remembered  that  prior  to  1887  the  continuous 
current  seemed  to  absorb  the  attention  of  American  electrical  en- 
gineers. Some,  however,  concerning  themselves  with  the  prob- 
lem of  the  economical  distribution  of  current  over  larger  areas, 
perceived  the  importance  of  cutting  down  the  plant  cost  involved 
in  the  use  of  the  continuous  current,  which  then  necessitated 
heavy  copper  cables.  Among  these  engineers,  and  as  a  practical 
inventor  foremost  among  them,  was  Mr.  Stanley.  A  working 
theory  of  the  alternating  current  was  clear  in  his  mind  as  early  as 
1883.  Failing  then  to  convince  George  Westinghouse,  with 
whom  he  was  at  the  time  associated,  of  its  utility,  he  soon  after- 
ward withdrew  from  his  connection  with  Mr.  Westinghouse,  and 
in  1885  and  1886  constructed  and  operated,  in  Great  Barrington, 
the  first  alternating  current  machinery  to  be  seen  in  this  country, 
which  was  capable  of  transmitting  current  for  light  and  power 
over  an  extended  field.  The  size  of  the  wires  was  one  twenty- 
fifth  of  that  required  under  the  continuous  current  system  then  in 
use. 

Near  Mr.  Stanley's  home,  the  town  of  Pittsfield  offered  a 
somewhat  broader  opportunity  for  testing  and  developing  his 
devices,  and  accordingly  he  became  officially  attached,  as  we  have 
seen,  to  the  Pittsfield  Illuminating  Company  in  1887.  When 
this  corporation  was  consolidated  with  its  older  rival,  forming 
the  present  Pittsfield  Electric  Company,  it  was  announced  that 
an  upper  floor  of  the  new  building,  erected  for  the  company  by 
W.  A.  Whittlesey  on  Cottage  Row,  now  Eagle  Street,  had  been 
leased  to  Mr.  Stanley  for  a  laboratory  and  workshop. 

The  news  was  greeted  by  Pittsfield's  business  men  with  com- 
posure. The  vague  notion  appears  to  have  prevailed  that  Mr. 
Stanley's  activities  would  be  merely  a  part  of  those  of  the  lighting 
company,  and  also  that  he  might  have  something  or  other  to  do 
with  the  equipment  with  electric  power  of  the  street  railway. 
Even  after  the  announcement  that  Mr.  Stanley  had  moved  his 
home  and  working  headquarters  to  Pittsfield,  and  had  gathered 
there  around  him  a  group  of  progressive  young  electrical  engi- 
neers, the  conservative  town  did  not  indulge  itself  in  undignified 
prevision.     A  few  men,  however,  were  able  apparently  to  foresee, 


ELECTRICAL  MANUFACTURING  267 

if  dimly,  the  importance  of  this  new  Pittsfield  enterprise.  One 
of  these  men  was  William  W.  Gamwell.  A  certain  interview 
which  Mr.  Stanley  had  with  Mr.  Gamwell  in  the  summer  of  1890 
is  said  to  have  been  the  germ  of  the  Stanley  Electric  Manufactur- 
ing Company.  There  were  in  the  country  only  two  establish- 
ments where  alternate  current  machines  were  made,  although 
about  1,500  stations  were  operating  the  system,  and  the  number 
of  them  was  rapidly  increasing.  To  Mr.  Gamwell,  Mr.  Stanley 
advanced  the  idea  that  here  was  a  commercial  opening  worth  trial. 
His  plan  was  to  supply  these  stations  with  transformers,  devices 
to  raise  or  lower  the  voltage  of  electrical  currents.  The  manufac- 
ture of  generators,  or  of  other  station  appliances,  did  not  enter 
into  the  original  scheme. 

Mr.  Gamwell's  interest  was  excited,  as  well  as  that  of  others, 
among  whom  was  William  A.  Whittlesey.  Meetings  preliminary 
to  the  organization  of  a  company  were  held  in  the  office  of  William 
R.  Plunkett,  another  valuable  supporter  of  the  undertaking. 
Local  investors  were  coy,  and  naturally  so,  for  in  a  Berkshire 
town  of  those  days  electrical  machinery  was  generally  held  to  be 
an  almost  fantastic  sort  of  thing.  At  length,  on  December 
twenty-sixth,  1890,  incorporation  of  the  Stanley  Electric  Manu- 
facturing Company  was  effected,  the  legal  papers  having  been 
drawn  by  Mr.  Plunkett.  The  capital  stock  was  $25,000.  The 
officers  were  Charles  Atwater,  president  and  treasurer;  George 
H.  Tucker,  clerk;  the  foregoing,  with  William  Stanley,  Jr., 
Charles  E.  Hibbard,  William  W.  Gamwell,  and  Henry  C.  Clark, 
directors.  A  somewhat  odd  coincidence  suggests  itself.  The 
first  corporation  formed  in  Pittsfield  for  the  purpose  of  textile 
manufacturing,  afterward  the  town's  chief  industrial  reliance, 
was  organized  at  Captain  Merrick's  tavern  in  1809.  In  a  build- 
ing on  precisely  the  same  site,  eighty-one  years  later,  was  or- 
ganized a  corporation  whose  success  was  to  be  the  backbone  of 
the  city's  industrial  welfare. 

Charles  Atwater,  the  first  president  of  the  corporation,  was 
born  in  1853,  and  was  for  many  years  connected  with  the  manu- 
facturing business  of  L.  Pomeroy's  Sons.  An  affable  and  ex- 
tremely popular  man,  of  many  friends,  he  died  in  London,  May 
first,  1898. 


268  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

As  early  as  November,  1890,  the  designing  and  modeling  of 
transformers  and  generators  had  been  begun  in  the  laboratory 
on  Cottage  Row  by  the  engineers  associated  with  Mr.  Stanley. 
Prominent  among  them  was  Cummings  C.  Chesney,  who  then 
became  a  citizen  of  Pittsfield.  In  1892,  after  the  laboratory 
force  had  been  joined  by  John  F.  Kelly,  the  Stanley  Laboratory 
Company  was  incorporated,  with  a  capital  stock  of  $10,000. 
The  function  of  the  laboratory  company  was  that  of  a  consulting 
engineer  for  the  manufacturing  company,  and  the  early  en- 
deavors of  the  former  were  chiefly  directed  toward  the  perfection 
of  an  alternating  current  motor  for  use  in  the  transmission  of 
power  over  long  distances.  Miles  of  wire  were  strung  in  the  se- 
clusion of  "Colt's  lot",  near  the  present  intersection  of  Colt  Road 
and  Wendell  Avenue,  and  there  experiments  were  conducted. 
Eventually  was  perfected  what  is  now  known  as  the  inductor 
type  of  generator.  The  sale  of  this  machine,  which  was  the 
joint  invention  of  Messrs.  Stanley,  Kelly,  and  Chesney,  was 
destined  to  be  the  most  important  single  factor  in  the  Stanley 
Electric  Manufacturing  Company's  prosperity. 

In  January,  1891,  the  Stanley  Electric  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany began  operation,  and  in  the  following  April  the  first  trans- 
former was  shipped.  The  factory  was  in  a  building  on  Clapp 
Avenue,  where  sixteen  hands  were  employed.  The  works'  engi- 
neer was  Cummings  C.  Chesney,  the  shop  superintendent  was 
John  H.  Kelman,  and  the  sales  manager  was  Henry  Hine,  who 
had  learned  the  business  with  the  Westinghouse  enterprises. 
Extraordinary  success  crowned  the  young  undertaking  im- 
mediately. In  1891  the  company  built  the  first  100-light  trans- 
formers used  in  America;  its  little  factory  was  the  first  in  the 
country  to  build  transformers  of  10,000  volts  and  higher.  The 
4000  K  W  transformer  made  in  1893  by  the  Stanley  Electric 
Manufacturing  Company,  for  an  establishment  in  Pittsburg,  was 
at  that  time  the  largest  machine  of  the  kind  in  the  world.  Thus 
in  the  manufacture  of  transformers,  the  company  was  a  leader. 

To  the  manufacture  of  transformers  was  soon  added  that  of 
switchboards,  motors,  and  generators.  In  1893  the  company's 
shop  built  the  first  American  polyphase  alternating  current 
generator  for  long  distance  transmission  of  energy  at  high  volt- 


ELECTRICAL  MANUFACTURING  269 

age.  This  was  installed  in  December,  1893,  at  a  power  plant, 
called  the  "Old  Furnace"  plant,  near  the  Monument  Mills  at 
Housatonic,  Massachusetts,  and  generated  electrical  energy  for 
transmission  to  the  Monument  Mills  and  to  Great  Barrington, 
to  be  used  for  light  and  power.  The  historic  generator  remained 
in  daily  operation  until  1912,  and  in  1914  it  was  presented  by  the 
General  Electric  Company  to  the  Museum  of  Natural  History 
and  Art  in  Pittsfield.  Thus  in  the  designing  and  construction 
of  high  tension  apparatus  for  the  transmission  of  power,  the 
local  company  again  was  a  vigorous  pioneer,  and  it  successfully 
equipped  great  plants  of  power  transmission  in  California,  in 
Canada,  and  the  South.  By  such  equipment,  made  in  Pittsfield 
by  a  Pittsfield  concern,  the  entire  field  of  American  industry  was 
permanently  and  impressively  broadened. 

The  business  speedily  outgrew  the  original  quarters  of  the 
company.  In  1893  the  company  established  itself  in  the  new 
brick  factory  which  William  A.  Whittlesey  built  for  it  on  Renne 
Avenue.  About  300  hands  were  there  employed,  and  a  constant 
growth  was  maintained  in  the  company's  product,  now  compris- 
ing transformers,  generators,  rotary  converters,  switchboard  ap- 
paratus, motor  generator  sets,  and  other  station  appliances,  and 
marketed  under  the  trade  name  of  the  "S.K.C.  System",  so 
designated  because  its  devisers  were  Messrs.  Stanley,  Kelly,  and 
Chesney.  The  Stanley  Laboratory  Company,  in  which  these  en- 
gineers were  the  principal  stockholders,  was  absorbed  by  the 
Stanley  Electric  Manufacturing  Company  in  1895. 

Financially,  the  company  in  its  youthful  days  had  an  ad- 
vantage over  many  older  competitors  in  not  being  loaded  down, 
like  some  of  the  great  electrical  supply  concerns  of  that  period, 
with  the  enormous  cost  of  years  of  experimental  work,  with  the 
heavy  expense  of  preliminary  trials,  failures,  and  alterations  in  its 
product.  Guided  by  the  alert  talent  of  the  engineers  in  the  lab- 
oratory, the  Pittsfield  company  engaged  itself  in  the  manufacture 
of  perfected  apparatus.  But  the  rapid  expansion  of  its  business, 
although  very  profitable,  compelled  the  carrying  of  a  larger  and 
larger  amount  of  raw  material  and  of  material  in  process  of  manu- 
facture. The  money  market  at  the  time  was  stringent.  The 
financial  managers  of  the  company  were  not  seldom  embarrassed 


270  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

by  lack  of  capital,  and  occasionally  they,  with  the  heavier  stock- 
holders, borrowed  money  on  their  joint  paper  for  the  temporary 
needs  of  the  corporation.  During  its  first  six  months  of  existence, 
on  a  capital  of  $25,000,  the  company  earned  about  $7,500.  On 
May  second,  1891,  the  capital  was  increased  by  vote  to  $50,000, 
and  in  that  year  the  profit  was  $18,000.  In  the  third  year,  the 
capital  having  been  voted  an  increase  to  $100,000  on  August 
ninth,  1892,  the  earnings  were  $54,000.  In  1893  the  capital  was 
raised  to  $200,000,  and  to  $300,000  in  1895. 

Early  changes  among  the  officers  of  the  company  may  here  be 
noted.  In  November,  1891,  Henry  Hine  and  William  R. 
Plunkett  took  the  places,  as  directors,  of  Charles  E,  Hibbard  and 
Henry  C.  Clark.  In  July,  1893,  Charles  Atwater  retired  from 
the  presidency  and  treasurership,  and  was  succeeded  by  William 
W.  Gamwell,  whose  duties  of  treasurer  were  assumed  in  Septem- 
ber, 1893,  by  William  A.  Whittlesey.  In  March,  1894,  Messrs. 
Atwater  and  Stanley  withdrew  from  the  board  of  directors,  and 
Walter  F.  Hawkins  and  George  W.  Bailey  replaced  them.  Mr. 
Whittlesey,  in  January,  1896,  declined  re-election  as  treasurer, 
and  Mr.  Gamwell,  the  president,  succeeded  him,  holding  two 
offices  until  December,  1896,  when  George  W.  Bailey  was  chosen 
treasurer. 

Six  years  after  the  chartering  of  the  company  with  a  capitaliz- 
ation of  $25,000,  it  was  voted,  on  December,  nineteenth,  1896,  to 
increase  the  capital  stock  from  $300,000  to  $500,000.  During 
the  same  brief  period,  the  company  had  played  a  leading  part  in 
the  enormous  development  of  the  use  in  America  of  electrical 
machinery,  and  a  part  equally  remarkable  in  the  industrial  devel- 
opment of  the  city.  Financed  by  local  capital  and  managed  by 
local  men,  the  company  was  able  to  report,  in  1897,  tliat  the  as- 
sets exceeded  the  liabilities,  except  for  capital  stock,  by  $402,000 
and  that  the  profits  since  18»1  had  been  nearly  $300,000.  Pay- 
ments for  wages  in  Pittsfield  had  amounted  in  five  years  to  ap- 
proximately half  a  million  dollars.  Nevertheless,  about  $80,000 
of  the  capital  stock  voted  to  be  issued  in  1896  remained  unsub- 
scribed. By  this  lack  of  local  support  some  of  the  officers  of 
the  company  appear  to  have  been  somewhat  daunted.  The 
value  of  the  enterprise  to  Pittsfield  was  proved,  and  its  future 


ELECTRICAL  MANUFACTURING  271 

possibilities  could  hardly  be  estimated.  The  corporate  managers, 
however,  had  little  choice.  Trade  pressure  by  powerful  rivals 
made  expansion  of  capital  imperative.  Unless  this  could  be 
periodically  assured  from  investors  at  home,  a  sale  of  corporate 
control  to  investors  from  abroad  was  inevitable,  and  such  a  sale 
carried  the  contingency  of  the  removal  of  the  works  from  the  city. 

In  July,  1899,  it  was  announced  that  control  of  the  rights 
and  property  of  the  company  had  been  sold;  and  it  was  later 
disclosed  that  the  purchaser  was  Ferdinand  W.  Roebling,  of  the 
John  A.  Roebling  Sons  Company  of  Trenton,  New  Jersey.  The 
sale  was  fully  completed  in  January,  1900,  and  Mr.  Roebling 
then  became  sole  owner  of  the  stock,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
shares  held  by  the  local  directors.  The  company  was  thereupon 
dissolved,  and  a  new  corporation,  bearing  the  same  name,  was 
immediately  organized  under  the  laws  of  the  state  of  New  Jersey. 
The  capital  stock  of  the  new  company  was,  in  1900,  fixed  at 
$2,000,000,  of  which  one-half  was  to  be  paid  in.  The  new  chief 
officers  were  Dr.  F.  A.  C.  Perrine,  president,  William  W.  Gam- 
well,  treasurer,  and  Henry  Hine,  general  manager.  Mr.  Hine, 
however,  soon  withdrew.  Cummings  C.  Chesney  continued  to 
be  chief  engineer  of  the  works. 

The  community  at  once  was  greatly  perturbed  by  rumors  that 
the  plant  was  to  be  removed.  A  pubhc  meeting  chose  a  commit- 
tee whose  members  used  urgent  efforts  to  obtain  liberal  sub- 
scriptions from  local  investors  to  stock  in  the  reorganized  cor- 
poration; a  concerted  attempt  was  made  by  leading  citizens  to 
convince  the  new  management  that  the  works  might  with  mutual 
advantage  be  retained  in  Pittsfield.  Finally,  in  March,  1900, 
there  was  popular  rejoicing  at  the  announcement  that  the  shops 
would  remain  in  the  city.  The  new  president,  Dr.  Perrine,  who 
was  Mr.  Roebling's  son-in-law,  became  a  resident  of  Pittsfield, 
and  the  distinctively  local  character  of  the  industry  was  not  lost, 
although  the  financial  control  had  passed  elsewhere. 

Plans  immediately  took  shape  for  the  construction  of  a  manu- 
facturing plant  on  a  scale  unprecedented  in  Pittsfield.  The  se- 
lection of  the  site  at  Morningside,  near  the  line  of  the  railroad 
track,  was  made  known  in  April,  1900,  and  there  the  first  building 
erected  was  the  one  used  at  present  for  the  manufacture  of  trans- 


272  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

formers.  In  dimensions  500  by  90  feet,  this  shop  was  striking 
evidence  of  the  growth  of  the  enterprise  in  its  decade  of  existence. 
AuxiHary  buildings  having  been  completed,  the  company  was 
established  in  its  new  home  in  1901;  and  the  shop  on  Renne 
Avenue  was  abandoned,  as  well  as  the  shop  on  Clapp  Avenue, 
which  until  then  had  been  utilized  mainly  for  the  manufacture  of 
switchboards.  The  Morningside  factory  in  1901  gave  employ- 
ment to  about  1,200  operatives.  The  output  of  machinery  in 
that  year  was  represented  by  a  sum  of  approximately  one  million 
dollars.  There  were  then  in  use,  throughout  the  United  States 
and  Canada,  more  than  500  "S.K.C."  generators.  The  value 
set  on  the  year's  shipments  for  1903  was,  in  round  figures,  $1,- 
500,000,  and  the  maximum  of  the  working  force  was  1,700.  The 
vitality  of  the  company's  business  and  its  prospective  growth  at- 
tracted more  particular  attention  from  the  great  financial  powers 
of  the  country. 

The  controlling  owners  of  the  corporate  stock  were  then  a 
small  group  of  New  York  capitalists,  which  included,  besides 
Mr.  Roebling,  William  C.  Whitney  and  Thomas  F.  Ryan.  By 
this  syndicate  a  sale  of  the  company  was  effected,  in  1903,  to  the 
General  Electric  Company  of  Schenectady,  New  York.  The 
purchasing  company,  which  is  the  largest  manufacturer  of  elec- 
trical machinery  and  appliances  in  America,  had  been  formed  in 
1892  by  the  union  of  the  Edison  General  Electric  Company  of 
Schenectady,  New  York,  and  the  Thompson-Houston  Company 
of  Lynn,  Massachusetts. 

Popular  apprehension  was  again  excited  lest,  by  this  sale, 
Pittsfield  should  lose  the  manufactory  which  had  become  the 
most  powerful  stimulant  to  the  city's  prosperity.  It  soon  ap- 
peared, however,  that  it  was  not  the  immediate  intention  of  the 
purchasers  to  consolidate  the  Pittsfield  establishment  with  their 
system  of  factories,  but  rather  to  operate  the  local  plant  as  an 
individual  concern.  The  chief  officers  of  the  Stanley  Electric 
Manufacturing  Company  under  the  new  control  were  men  well 
known  to  the  community — W.  Murray  Crane,  president,  William 
W.  Gamwell,  treasurer,  and  Cummings  C.  Chesney,  one  of  the 
vice-presidents  and  the  supervising  engineer.  Another  vice- 
president  in  the  reorganization  was  Dr.  F.  A.  C.  Perrine,  who  re- 


ELECTRICAL  MANUFACTURING  273 

signed  in  the  following  year,  1904,  when  also  resigned  William  W. 
Gam  well,  after  service  of  the  utmost  value  to  the  company,  as 
president,  treasurer,  or  director  since  its  incorporation. 

William  W.  Gamwell  was  born  at  Pittsfield,  February 
twentieth,  1850;  and  in  1874,  he  formed  a  partnership  with 
Eugene  H.  Robbins  to  conduct  a  store  on  West  Street  for  the  sale 
of  steam  heating  appliances.  This  establishment  still  maintains 
the  success  which  has  distinguished  it  for  more  than  forty  years. 
The  rare  business  acumen  possessed  by  Mr.  Gamwell  showed  it- 
self in  other  directions.  He  was  of  great  assistance  to  the  man- 
agement of  the  Pittsfield  National  Bank,  and  was  a  capable 
president  of  that  institution  for  several  years.  His  death  oc- 
curred on  September  twenty-first,  1913. 

His  quiet,  placid  demeanor  was  that  of  an  easy-going  man; 
but  behind  it  was  a  compelling  personal  force  which  he  could  so 
concentrate  and  utilize  as  to  affect  his  associates  and  business 
antagonists  often  before  they  quite  realized  what  was  happening. 
Simple,  human  traits  were  strongly  marked  in  him;  he  delighted 
in  friendship,  and  in  giving  either  pleasure  or  help  to  his  friends. 
His  keen  sagacity  was  unpretentious,  and  perhaps  for  that  reason 
was  the  more  effective.  The  trust  which  people  had  in  his 
shrewd  judgment  was  strengthened  by  the  reticence  and  calmness 
with  which  his  judgment  was  applied.  During  the  course  of  the 
momentous  financial  negotiations,  which  preceded  the  sale  of  the 
Stanley  Electric  Manufacturing  Company  and  which  in  behalf 
of  the  Pittsfield  concern  were  handled  chiefly  by  Mr.  Gamwell, 
this  popular  trust  was  especially  manifest;  and  Mr.  Gam  well's 
connection  with  the  Stanley  Company  from  the  beginning  tended 
to  fortify  the  enterprise  in  local  confidence  as  well  as  to  placate 
its  internal  discords. 

The  year  1903,  which  witnessed  the  purchase  of  the  Stanley 
Electric  Manufacturing  Company  by  the  General  Electric  Com- 
pany, witnessed  also  the  alliance  of  the  former  with  the  General 
Incandescent  Arc  Light  Company  of  New  York.  The  name  of 
the  concern  was  changed  to  the  Stanley-G.  I.  Electric  Manufac- 
turing Company.  In  1907  the  Pittsfield  plant  was  formally  and 
in  all  respects  taken  over  by  the  General  Electric  Company,  its 
individual  corporate  name  and  individual  board  of  ofiicers  were 


274  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

discontinued,  and  it  became  nominally,  as  it  had  been  for  four 
years  practically,  a  part  of  the  General  Electric  Company's  sys- 
tem of  factories,  which  includes  works  in  Lynn  and  Schenectady. 
Throughout  these  changes,  Cummings  C.  Chesney  remained  as 
general  manager  of  the  Pittsfield  works,  and  in  1915  he  still  held 
that  office. 

In  December,  1905,  plans  were  made  public  which  signified 
a  great  expansion  of  the  works  at  Morningside.  The  construc- 
tion cost  of  additions  to  the  plant  was  about  $280,000  in  1906, 
and  about  $300,000  in  1907.  Five  years  later,  in  1912,  the  ex- 
penditure for  new  buildings  at  the  General  Electric  works  at 
Pittsfield  during  the  year  was  approximately  $425,000.  By 
these  and  other  enlargements,  the  floor  area  of  the  shops  was  in- 
creased to  1,600,000  square  feet.  In  1915  the  capacity  employ- 
ment was  about  one-sixth  of  the  population  of  the  city.  The 
plant  then  comprised  twenty-two  factories  and  the  same  number 
of  auxiliary  buildings.  A  complete  and  technical  description  of 
the  product  of  the  huge  establishment  would  be  out  of  place  in  a 
general  history  of  Pittsfield.  Some  figures,  however,  are  here 
impressive.  The  principal  items  of  the  annual  output  capacity 
were,  in  1915,  transformers  aggregating  4,800,000  horse  power, 
300,000  electric  flat  irons,  168,000  electric  fans,  and  24,000  small 
motors,  while  the  product  includes  numerous  machines  and  de- 
vices of  other  sorts. 

When  the  General  Electric  Company,  in  1907,  made  the 
Pittsfield  plant  a  component  of  its  system,  in  name  as  well  as 
actually,  the  development  and  progress  of  the  local  works  be- 
came, of  course,  more  definitely  merged  in  the  broader  develop- 
ment and  progress  of  the  owning  company;  and  the  city  realized 
more  forcibly  that  the  thousands  of  people  employed  in  the 
Pittsfield  shops  were  employed  by  an  absentee,  and  not  by  a 
Pittsfield,  employer.  The  growth  of  the  establishment,  and  the 
quality  and  quantity  of  the  output,  could  no  longer  with  strict 
truth  be  ascribed  to  Pittsfield  enterprise.  Nevertheless,  Pitts- 
field did  not  cease  to  regard  them  with  a  sort  of  parental  pride, 
quite  apart  from  the  satisfaction  caused  by  the  contribution 
made  by  the  company  to  the  city's  prosperity.  It  was  remem- 
bered that  the  plant  owed  its  origin  to  Pittsfield  spirit,  that  in  its 


ELECTRICAL  MANUFACTURING  275 

vigorous  and  aggressive  youth  it  had  been  financed  by  Pittsfield 
capital,  and  that  Mr.  Chesney,  who,  under  the  General  Electric 
Company,  still  managed  the  works,  had  been  a  Pittsfield  citizen 
since  1891,  when  he  was  the  first  manager  of  the  concern.  Partly 
due  to  this  popular  feeling,  perhaps,  was  the  fact  that  the  works, 
long  after  their  absorption  by  the  General  Electric  Company, 
were  locally  called  "Stanley's"  as  often  as  by  the  name  of  their 
new  ownership. 

William  Stanley  died  at  his  home  in  Great  Barrington,  May 
fourteenth,  1916,  while  this  book  was  in  process  of  completion. 
He  was  born,  November  twenty-second,  1858,  at  Brooklyn,  New 
York.  Although  he  was  a  resident  of  Pittsfield  for  only  a  few 
years,  beginning  in  1890,  his  connection  with  Pittsfield  effected 
the  most  marked  change  in  its  industrial  character  which  had 
been  experienced  since  the  erection  of  the  town's  first  woolen  and 
cotton  mills  in  the  early  years  of  the  century,  and  the  story  of  his 
life  and  achievements  is  a  part  of  the  story  of  the  city. 

Mr.  Stanley,  the  son  of  a  distinguished  lawyer,  was  engaged 
in  the  business  of  nickel-plating  in  New  York  in  1879,  when  he 
fell  under  the  notice  of  Hiram  Maxim.  That  famous  inventor 
was  then  chief  engineer  of  the  United  States  Electric  Light  Com- 
pany, and  he  employed  young  Stanley  as  his  assistant.  The 
employment  was  not  long  continued,  but  seems  to  have  deter- 
mined Mr,  Stanley's  career.  He  devoted  himself  to  the  inven- 
tion and  perfection  of  a  method  of  exhausting  the  bulbs  of  incan- 
descent lamps,  and  in  1883  and  1884  he  conducted  his  researches 
in  a  private  electrical  laboratory  in  Englewood,  New  Jersey. 
There  he  was  discovered  by  George  Westinghouse,  with  whom  he 
made  a  contract  for  the  use  of  his  inventions.  While  he  was  in- 
vestigating the  problem  of  increasing  the  distribution  area  of 
electricity  by  the  alternating  current,  Mr.  Stanley's  health 
broke  down;  and,  in  1885,  he  removed  his  residence  to  Great 
Barrington,  in  Berkshire.  In  the  same  year,  he  devised  his 
electrical  transformer.  Foregoing  paragraphs  of  the  present 
chapter  have  alluded  to  the  revolutionary  success  in  the  science 
of  electrical  engineering  accomplished  by  Mr.  Stanley  in  1886  by 
his  demonstration  in  Great  Barrington  of  his  alternating  current 
system,  and  by  him  and  his  Pittsfield  associates,  Messrs.  Kelly 


276  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

and  Chesney,  in  1893  by  the  invention  and  construction  of  their 
polyphase,  alternating  current  generator. 

After  terminating  his  active  connection  with  the  Stanley 
Electric  Manufacturing  Company,  Mr.  Stanley  continued  to  re- 
side in  Pittsfield  until  about  1898,  conducting  for  a  part  of  the 
time  a  small  shop  and  laboratory  on  West  Street  for  the  manu- 
facture and  designing  of  electrical  instruments.  His  home  dur- 
ing the  final  years  of  his  life  was  in  Great  Barrington.  He  travel- 
ed widely,  and  many  of  the  leading  electrical  engineers  of  Europe 
enjoyed  personal  acquaintance  with  him.  He  worked,  felt,  and 
lived  alike  at  high  tension.  His  mind  was  peculiarly  restless  and 
in  unexpected  directions  acquisitive;  the  breadth  and  depth  of 
his  information  were  unusual;  and  it  is  improbable  that  any 
other  Berkshire  man  of  his  time  could  talk  so  entertainingly.  In 
almost  any  English-speaking  assemblage,  he  could  gather  an 
audience  that  would  long  remember  him. 

The  young  men  of  his  profession  found  that  even  a  brief  and 
casual  association  with  him  was  a  memorable  stimulus.  In  the 
long  life  of  Pittsfield,  the  city's  association  with  Mr.  Stanley  was 
hardly  more  than  brief  and  casual;  nevertheless,  the  result  was  a 
stimulation  which  is  not  soon  to  be  forgotten  by  the  community. 


CHAPTER    XIX 
LAW  AND  ORDER 

THE  state  first  established  a  town  police  court  in  Pittsfield 
in  1850,  by  an  act  authorizing  the  appointment  by  the 
governor  of  one  "person  to  take  cognizance  of  all  crimes, 
offences,  and  misdemeanors,  whereof  justices  of  the  peace  now 
have  jurisdiction".  Matthias  R.  Lanckton  was  commissioned 
as  presiding  justice  of  the  new  court;  his  successors  were  John 
A.  Walker  and  Phineas  L.  Page,  Sessions  were  held  in  a  room 
provided  by  the  town,  sometimes  on  the  lower  floor  of  the  town 
hall.  In  1869  the  court  was  transacting  its  business  in  a  room 
in  the  Goodrich  block  on  North  Street,  and  was  superseded  then 
by  the  District  Court  of  Central  Berkshire,  established  by  Chap- 
ter 416  of  the  Acts  of  1869. 

This  court  was  erected  in  response  to  a  petition  signed  by  in- 
habitants of  Pittsfield,  Dalton,  Lanesborough,  Hinsdale,  Wind- 
sor, Richmond,  Hancock,  and  Peru;  and  those  towns  were  em- 
braced within  its  district  of  jurisdiction.  Among  the  Pittsfield 
signers  of  the  petition  was  Judge  Page,  of  the  town's  police 
court,  who  found  himself  out  of  office  soon  after  the  petition  was 
granted;  for  Governor  Claflin  appointed,  as  the  first  standing 
justice  of  the  District  Court  of  Central  Berkshire,  Gen.  Henry 
S.  Briggs  of  Pittsfield.  Until  the  county  court  house  was  com- 
pleted in  1871,  the  District  Court  held  sessions  in  the  wooden 
lecture  room  of  the  First  Church,  next  to  the  town  hall. 

An  historical  sketch  of  a  court  of  this  description  may  be 
given,  with  more  propriety  than  in  the  case  of  higher  tribunals, 
by  a  characterization  of  the  men  who  presided  over  it.  When 
the  court  was  erected,  the  grateful  custom  of  the  Commonwealth 
was  to  bestow  civil  office  upon  those  who  had  served  her  well  in 
the  recent  war  between  the  states.  Doubtless  there  were  occa- 
sions when  gratitude  may  have  been  invoked  over-emphatically. 


278  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

but  Pittsfield  does  not  present  conspicuous  instances  of  them. 
Certainly  the  town  was  unusually  fortunate  in  the  appointments 
of  the  two  veterans  of  the  Civil  War  who,  for  nearly  forty  years, 
presided  over  its  District  Court. 

Henry  Shaw  Briggs,  from  the  date  of  his  admission  to  the  bar 
in  1848  until  the  outbreak  of  the  war  in  1861,  practiced  law  in 
Pittsfield.  The  son  of  Governor  George  Nixon  Briggs,  he  was 
born  in  Lanesborough,  August  first,  1824,  and  was  graduated 
from  Williams  College  in  1844.  He  received  his  professional 
education  at  the  Harvard  Law  School;  in  1856  he  was  a  repre- 
sentative from  Pittsfield  to  the  General  Court;  he  was  auditor  of 
the  Commonwealth  from  1865  to  1869;  and  his  legal  training, 
as  well  as  his  personal  character,  made  his  appointment  to  the 
bench  appropriate.  No  native  of  Berkshire  achieved  distinction 
more  honorable  than  his  in  our  great  war.  In  1861  he  was  cap- 
tain of  Pittsfield's  Allen  Guard,  a  company  of  militia  unattached 
to  any  regimental  organization.  He  happened  to  be  trying  a  law 
case  in  Boston  on  the  April  day  when  Governor  Andrew  ordered 
out  the  first  contingent  of  Massachusetts  regiments.  Learning 
that  one  of  them,  the  Eighth,  lacked  two  companies,  the  Pittsfield 
lawyer,  after  court  had  been  adjourned  in  the  afternoon,  hurried 
to  the  Governor  and  prevailed  upon  him  to  attach  the  Allen 
Guard  to  that  command.  In  the  morning  the  trial  was  re- 
sumed, but  an  advocate  was  missing.  "Where  is  Mr.  Briggs?" 
complained  the  presiding  judge.  "Captain  Briggs,  may  it 
please  the  court,"  replied  an  attorney,  "has  gone  to  Washington 
at  the  head  of  his  company". 

On  June  tenth,  1861,  he  was  commissioned  colonel  of  the 
Massachusetts  Tenth,  recruited  in  the  western  counties  and  one 
of  the  six  regiments  then  furnished  by  the  Commonwealth  to 
serve  for  three  years.  Having  been  sent  to  join  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  the  Tenth  first  went  into  action  on  May  thirty-first, 
1862,  at  the  battle  of  Fair  Oaks,  Virginia,  where  Colonel  Briggs 
was  severely  wounded  in  both  thighs.  As  soon  as  he  recovered, 
he  returned  to  the  front.  In  the  meantime  he  had  been  pro- 
moted to  be  brigadier  general  for  gallantry  on  the  field.  During 
the  remainder  of  the  war  he  served  faithfully  in  Virginia,  al- 
though his  health  was  broken  by  the  effect  of  his  wounds.     His 


LAW  AND  ORDER  273 

memory  will  always  be  visibly  preserved  in  Pittsfield  by  the 
bowlder  and  the  bronze  tablet,  which  were  dedicated  in  1907, 
near  the  court  house. 

The  District  Court  had  General  Briggs  for  its  presiding  jus- 
tice for  four  years.  In  1873  he  accepted  the  appointment  by  the 
United  States  government  to  be  appraiser  at  the  custom  house  in 
Boston.  He  retained,  however,  his  home  in  Pittsfield,  and  there 
he  died,  September  twenty-third,  1887.  His  wife,  to  whom  he 
was  married  in  1849,  was  Miss  Mary  Talcott  of  Lanesborough. 

The  type  of  manhood  represented  by  the  first  judge  of  Pitts- 
field's  District  Court  may  be  understood  by  reading  two  letters, 
exchanged  in  Virginia  in  1862.  This  was  written  by  a  youthful 
Confederate  officer : 

"To  Col.  H.  S.  Briggs,  10th  Mass.  Vols. 

"Colonel:  Having  obtained  from  one  of  my  men  a  medallion, 
containing,  I  presume,  the  likenesses  of  your  family,  I  return  it 

to  you Though  willing  to  meet  you  ever  in  the 

field  while  acting  as  a  foe  to  my  country,  I  do  not  war  with  your 
personal  feelings;  and  supposing  the  medallion  to  be  prized  by 
you,  I  take  pleasure  in  returning  it. 

"M.  Jenkins,  Col.  Palmetto  Sharpshooters." 

The  following  are  extracts  from  the  reply;  and  it  will  be  ob- 
served that  in  the  interval  of  correspondence  both  of  these  brave, 
gentle-hearted  soldiers  had  been  promoted. 

"To  Gen.  M.  Jenkins, 

"General I  beg  to  assure  you  of  my  high  ap- 
preciation of  the  generous  magnanimity  and  delicate  courtesy 
of  your  act,  and  to  thank  you,  with  all  my  heart.  .  .  .  You 
will  pardon  me  if  I  say,  in  alluding  to  a  paragraph  in  your  note, 
that  I  cannot,  without  pain,  contemplate  the  meeting  as  a  foe, 
even  on  the  field,  one  who  has  performed  so  honorable  an  act, 
and  conferred  on  me  so  great  a  favor. 

"I  cannot  say  that  I  desire  to  requite  the  favor  under  similar 
circumstances,  but  I  will  assure  you  that,  should  any  opportunity 
ever  occur,  I  shall  improve  it  with  pleasure  and  alacrity.  Until 
then,  and  ever,  I  shall  hold  you  and  your  deed  of  kindness  in 
grateful  remembrance. 

"Henry  S.  Briggs,  Brig.  Gen.  Vols.  U.  S.  A." 

It  was  a  matter  of  no  slight  importance  to  the  community  of 
Pittsfield,  as  well  as  to  central  Berkshire,  that  the  authority  of 
the  new  District  Court  should  have  been  directed  and  personified 


280  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

by  a  man  of  whom  the  citizens  were  so  proud  and  fond  as  they 
were  of  General  Briggs.  His  successor  on  the  bench  in  1873  was 
Joseph  Tucker.  Here  again  legal  and  governmental  experience 
had  uncommonly  equipped  a  soldier  of  the  Civil  War  for  the 
performance  of  the  duties  of  presiding  justice. 

Joseph  Tucker,  the  son  of  George  Joseph  Tucker,  was  born 
in  Lenox,  August  thirty-first,  1832.  He  was  a  graduate  of  Wil- 
liams College,  in  the  class  of  1851 ;  and  he  studied  law  at  Harvard 
and  in  the  historic  office  of  Rockwell  and  Colt,  in  the  Pittsfield 
town  hall.  Admitted  to  the  Berkshire  bar  in  1853,  he  practiced 
his  profession  in  Detroit,  St.  Louis,  and  Great  Barrington. 
From  Great  Barrington  he  enlisted,  in  1862,  in  the  Forty-ninth 
regiment,  Massachusetts  Volunteers.  After  the  regiment  was 
sent  to  Louisiana,  Lieutenant  Tucker  was  assigned  to  duty  on  the 
staff  of  General  Chapin,  the  brigade  commander;  and  in  the  ac- 
tion of  Plains  Store,  May  twenty -first,  1863,  he  received  a  wound 
which  necessitated  the  amputation  of  a  leg.  At  the  close  of  the 
war,  he  resumed  his  law  practice  in  Great  Barrington.  In  1866 
and  in  1867  he  was  state  senator  from  southern  Berkshire;  and 
he  was  elected  for  four  successive  years,  beginning  in  1868,  to  the 
office  of  lieutenant  governor  of  the  Commonwealth.  In  1873  he 
became  a  resident  of  Pittsfield,  and  three  years  later  he  was  mar- 
ried to  Miss  Elizabeth  Bishop,  daughter  of  Judge  Henry  W. 
Bishop  of  Lenox. 

Judge  Tucker,  then,  was  forty-one  years  old  when  he  began 
his  career  as  the  magistrate  of  Pittsfield's  court.  His  experience 
at  the  West,  in  the  army,  and  at  the  state  capital  had  broadened 
a  mind  naturally  cosmopolitan,  and  had  trained  his  knowledge 
of  human  nature  to  be  so  wide  and  tolerant  that  it  could  com- 
prehend many  sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  He  soon  acquired 
an  almost  uncanny  knowledge  of  the  currents,  and  crosscurrents, 
and  undercurrents  in  the  stream  of  Pittsfield  life. 

To  the  work  of  the  court  he  devoted  himself,  for  thirty -four 
years.  The  tribunal,  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  came  to  mean 
Joseph  Tucker;  and  his  official  title  was  popularly  used  as  if  it 
were  his  Christian  name.  Correction  from  his  bench  was  quick 
and  sound,  but  no  more  so  than  was  his  sympathy.  Sometimes 
his  obiter  dicta  might  cause  uncertain  v/itnesses  or  unhappy  coun- 


LAW  AND  ORDER  281 

sel  to  wonder  at  finding  themselves  outside  the  dock,  but  the 
autocratic  court  was  seldom  beyond  the  reach  of  a  stroke  of 
honest  humor.  With  those  brought  to  distress  by  mere  weak- 
ness or  ignorance,  the  judge  was  patient  and  helpful,  for  his 
sense  of  the  humane  mission  of  his  office  was  as  effective  as  was 
that  of  his  duty  to  punish  wrongdoing  and  apply  justice  to  civil 
dispute. 

Judge  Tucker's  value  to  the  town  and  city  of  Pittsfield  lay 
chiefly  in  the  fact  that  a  man  of  his  caliber  and  stamp  presided 
so  long  and  so  conscientiously  over  the  District  Court.  In  many 
other  fields  of  service,  nevertheless,  his  influence  was  notable. 
He  was  a  prominent  figure  at  town  meetings,  and  over  the  last 
of  them  he  was  the  moderator.  He  was  long  president  of  the 
Union  for  Home  Work.  For  eleven  years,  and  during  a  critical 
stage  in  the  development  of  the  public  schools,  he  was  the  zealous 
and  efficient  chairman  of  the  school  committee.  He  was  a  trus- 
tee of  the  Berkshire  Athenaeum.  He  was  president  of  the  Pitts- 
field  Street  Railway  Company,  and  of  the  Berkshire  County 
Savings  Bank.  At  scores  of  public  meetings,  his  earnest,  pa- 
triotic addresses  interested  and  moved  his  auditors.  In  private 
life,  Judge  Tucker  was  what  Dr.  Johnson  would  have  called  a 
"clubable"  man;  a  lover  of  books,  without  being  bookish;  fond 
of  good  stories,  good  talk,  good  tobacco,  good  whist;  one  of  that 
generation  of  friends  who,  with  Robert  W.  Adam,  William  R. 
Plunkett,  Morris  Schaff,  Dr.  Jonathan  L.  Jenkins,  and  their 
kind,  heard  the  chimes  at  midnight  in  the  bright  circle  of  their 
Monday  Evening  Club. 

He  died  in  Pittsfield,  November  twenty-eighth,  1907.  Even 
in  the  later  years  of  his  life,  when  many  men  of  his  age,  of  his  re- 
finement, and  in  his  circumstances,  would  have  found  the  daily 
routine  of  municipal  magistracy  irksome  and  perhaps  unworthy 
of  their  labor,  he  obeyed,  in  soldierly  fashion,  his  high  ideal  of  its 
consequence.  He  had  become  the  people's  familiar  and  steadfast 
representative  of  civic  order  and  right  citizenship;  and  the 
District  Court,  inspirited  for  more  than  thirty  years  by  his 
strong  character,  grew  to  be  rather  a  living  force  than  a  mere 
piece  of  legal  mechanism. 

The  successor  of  Judge  Tucker  was  Charles  Eugene  Burke, 


282  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

who  received  the  appointment  December  fourth,  1907.  Judge 
Burke  was  born  in  Glastonbury,  Connecticut,  January  fifth, 
1854,  and  died  August  fifth,  1913,  having  presided  over  the  local 
court  not  quite  six  years.  His  youth  was  one  of  toil  and  poverty; 
but  so  stout  was  his  ambition  that  while  working  as  a  mill  hand 
at  Barkerville  he  contrived  to  fit  himself  for  college;  and  he  was 
graduated  from  Williams  in  1884.  Two  years  later  he  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  Berkshire  bar.  His  practice  of  the  law  was  charac- 
terized by  unflagging  industry  and  rewarded  by  patiently 
achieved  success.  Before  his  appointment  to  the  bench,  most 
of  his  professional  experience  had  been  in  civil  cases,  and  in  office 
consultation.  In  the  conduct,  therefore,  of  the  increasing  civil 
business  of  the  District  Court,  Judge  Burke  was  able  at  once  to 
prove  the  solid  value  of  his  legal  scholarship,  while  to  the  proper 
and  humane  performance  of  the  other  branch  of  his  judicial  duty 
he  applied  himself  with  the  same  solicitude.  He  was  a  charitable, 
kindly-natured,  unassuming  man,  whose  honorable  life  had  been 
a  hard  but  always  winning  struggle.  To  many  local  philan- 
thropic movements  he  gave  his  assistance;  and  death  removed 
him  at  the  time  when  he  seemed  to  be  entering  upon  a  larger 
field  of  usefulness  to  the  community  through  his  faithful  work 
in  the  District  Court. 

Judge  Burke  was  followed  on  the  bench  by  Charles  L.  Hib- 
bard,  who  was  appointed  in  1913  and  is  the  present  standing 
justice. 

The  first  clerk  of  the  District  Court,  John  M.  Taylor,  resigned 
the  office  after  service  of  less  than  a  year.  The  clerk  for  a  few 
months  following  was  Melville  Eggleston;  and  he  was  succeeded 
by  Walter  B.  Smith,  whose  earliest  official  entry  on  the  court 
records  was  made  in  September,  1870.  Captain  Smith  was  born, 
February  seventeenth,  1828,  at  Newmarket,  New  Hampshire; 
but  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  he  was  a  resident  of  Pitts- 
field.  His  war  record,  made  as  a  member  of  the  Tenth,  the 
Twentieth,  and  the  Thirty-seventh  regiments,  was  extraordinary. 
He  was  three  times  cruelly  wounded,  he  returned  five  times  from 
the  hospital  to  the  field,  he  was  in  twenty-one  important  battles, 
and  the  dawn  of  peace  in  1865  found  him  in  Virginia  and  ready 
for  more  fighting,  undaunted  as  a  gamecock.     Nor  is  that  homely 


LAW  AND  ORDER  283 

simile  otherwise  inappropriate,  for  his  stature  was  curiously 
slight.  He  was  a  brother  of  Joseph  E,  A.  Smith,  the  poet  and 
local  historian.  Captain  Smith  was  clerk  of  the  District  Court 
for  forty-two  years.  His  life  was  beset  by  private  cares,  his 
strength  was  torn  by  the  infirmities  resultant  from  his  old 
wounds,  but  he  endured  all  with  quiet  courage,  and  the  com- 
munity held  him  in  respect  and  affection.  He  died  in  Pittsfield, 
July  thirteenth,  1912,  having  in  the  same  year  resigned  his  posi- 
tion as  clerk  of  the  District  Court.  His  successor  was  Thomas  F- 
Conlin,  the  present  clerk,  who  assumed  the  duties  of  the  office  in 
May,  1912. 

A  small,  single-storied,  wooden  building,  which  stood  on  a 
portion  of  the  land  occupied  by  the  present  police  station  on 
School  Street,  was  in  1876  the  headquarters  of  Pittsfield's  police 
force.  It  had  been  erected  in  1862.  The  printed  report  of  the 
selectmen  thus  advised  the  voters  at  town  meeting  in  that 
year: 

"The  town  will  see  that  article  13  calls  them  to  decide  whether 
they  will  build  a  Station  House  and  Lockup.  The  Lockup  for 
the  purpose  of  retaining  or  restraining  those  who  are  quarrelsome 
and  disturbing  the  peace  in  and  about  the  public  streets;  and  a 
Station  House  for  lodging  a  class  of  unfortunate  transient  poor, 
who  are  wandering  about  the  country,  seeking,  as  they  allege, 
employment.  Experience  has  taught  the  Board  that  both  of 
these  are  necessary.  .  .  .  The  first,  and  perhaps  the  best 
way  is  for  the  town  to  procure,  if  not  already  the  owner,  a  piece 
of  land  near  at  hand  to  build  a  tenement  sufficiently  large  for  the 
accommodation  of  a  small  family,  and  to  attach  to  this  tenement 
a  Lockup  and  Station  House,  giving  the  family  the  use  of  the 
house  and  lot  for  superintending  and  taking  care  of  the  inmates 
of  both.  Another  is  to  build  a  stone  building,  fireproof,  or  as 
nearly  so  as  possible,  on  the  northwest  corner  of  the  Town  Lot, 
south  of  the  road  leading  past  the  Baptist  Church  to  the  Pon- 
toosuc  Engine  House". 

The  town  meeting  of  1862  adopted  neither  of  these  sugges- 
tions, but  appropriated  $1,000  for  a  new  lockup.  The  selectmen 
built  one  for  $880.12.  The  structure  which  the  new  station 
superseded  had  stood  on  the  north  side  of  the  present  School 
Street,  behind  the  Baptist  Church,  and  had  been  destroyed  by 


284  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

fire  in  February,  1862.     Thence  an  immured  bard  once  addressed 
a  poem  to  the  chairman  of  the  selectmen,  beginning: 

"The  Lockup  is  a  lonely  place. 
It  sets  a  man  a-thinking 
Of  all  the  shame  and  deep  disgrace 
Brought  on  himself  by  drinking". 

The  loneliness  of  the  place  was  unrelieved  even  by  the 
presence  of  an  official  custodian,  and  resulted  in  a  miserable  and 
shocking  tragedy  in  the  fire  of  1862,  when  a  prisoner  lost  his  life. 

The  proximity  to  the  village  of  large  drill  camps  of  recruits 
for  the  Civil  War  made  advisable  unusual  attention  to  the  preser- 
vation of  order.  There  was  no  organized  police  force,  in  the 
modern  sense  of  the  term.  The  town  annually  chose  constables, 
and  the  selectmen  sometimes  themselves  applied  the  physical 
hand  of  the  law.  Watchmen  were  hired  by  the  town  govern- 
ment upon  particular  occasions;  six  men,  for  instance,  were  au- 
thorized as  peace  officers  "in  the  time  of  the  draft".  The 
watchmen  ordinarily  employed  were  the  constables,  who  received 
extra  pay  for  their  added  duty.  Upon  the  list  of  watchmen  and 
constables  appear  with  regularity  the  names  of  Jabez  W.  Fair- 
banks, James  L.  Brooks,  Timothy  Hall,  and  Samuel  M.  Gunn. 

The  most  conspicuous  material  agent  for  a  long  period  in  the 
preservation  of  the  peace  of  the  village  was  Timothy  Hall's  re- 
doubtable cane,  wielded  by  one  who  transacted  his  business  with 
something  of  the  grim  resolution  of  the  ancient  Covenanter. 
Mr.  Hall  was  born  at  Cummington,  Massachusetts,  in  1800  and 
died  at  Pittsfield,  November  tenth,  1882.  For  forty-five  suc- 
cessive years,  after  1837,  he  served  either  as  a  local  constable  or 
deputy  sheriff.  He  was  fearless,  muscular,  and  determined; 
even  after  he  had  grown  old,  he  was  a  man  whom  to  obey  was 
wise;   and  his  notion  of  official  rights  and  duties  was  not  narrow. 

Samuel  M.  Gunn  was  born  in  Pittsfield,  June  seventh,  1808, 
and  there  he  died  on  June  fourth,  1908,  three  days  before  his 
hundredth  birthday.  He  formed  an  extraordinary  link  with 
the  pioneer  days  of  the  village,  for  his  great-grandmother  was 
Mrs.  Solomon  Deming,  whose  monument  in  the  little  burial 
ground  on  Elm  Street  bears  the  inscription  that  it  was  "erected 
by  the  town  of  Pittsfield  to  commemorate  the  heroism  and  vir- 


LAW  AND  ORDER  285 

tues  of  its  first  female  settler,  and  the  mother  of  the  first  white 
child  born  within  its  limits",  Mrs.  Deming  died  in  1818,  when 
Samuel  M.  Gunn  was  a  boy  of  ten  years;  and,  in  his  old  age,  he 
was  able  to  recall  in  the  twentieth  century  one  who,  before  the 
Revolution,  had  defended  her  home  against  Indian  marauders  in 
Pittsfield,  and  circumstantially  to  recollect  local  affairs  from  the 
time  when  the  central  village  possessed  only  twenty-three  dwell- 
ings. But  it  was  not  for  these  reasons  alone  that  Mr.  Gunn  was 
held  in  esteem  by  the  town  and  city.  He  was  a  good  type  of  the 
self-respecting  Yankee  farmer,  helpful  to  his  neighbors,  and  ready 
to  carry  his  share  of  the  community's  burdens. 

The  selectmen's  report  made  in  April,  1868,  says:  "The  ex- 
pense incurred  for  Watchmen  the  last  year  is  somewhat  larger 
than  previous  years,  owing  to  the  frequent  robberies  and  petty 
thieving.  The  selectmen  have  employed  two  persons  to  watch 
during  the  night  since  about  last  November".  This  date  marks 
the  first  appearance  in  Pittsfield  of  what  may  be  considered  a 
police  force  on  regular  patrol  duty.  Those  who  served  upon  the 
force  during  its  first  five  months  of  existence  were  E.  B. 
Mead,  Abram  Jackson,  and  John  R.  Cole;  and  among  its 
members  in  years  immediately  subsequent  were  Selden  Y. 
Clarke,  George  W.  Phillips,  Daniel  Barry,  and  Charles  B.  Wat- 
kins.  In  April,  1868,  George  Hayes  was  appointed  a  watchman, 
and  in  1869  the  selectmen  created  for  him  the  double  office,  of 
which  the  title  was  as  imposing  as  his  girth,  of  "Turnkey  of  the 
Lockup  and  Special  Constable  in  Attendance  on  the  District 
Court  of  Central  Berkshire". 

From  1868  until  1876  George  Hayes  was  chief  of  the  town's 
police,  although  not  officially  so  designated  until  1875.  Under 
his  ponderous  supervision,  the  little  squad  of  policemen  was  not 
characterized  by  a  high  state  of  discipline.  Modern  equipments, 
however,  seem  to  have  been  introduced.  The  reports  of  the  se- 
lectmen are  evidence  that  in  1870  the  town  bought  belts  and 
"clubs"  for  the  force,  and  in  1872  purchased  dials  for  a  night 
watch  clock  from  "Shrewd,  Crumb,  and  Co." 

The  town  meeting,  it  should  be  understood,  continued  to 
elect  constables.  John  M.  Hatch  was  so  chosen  in  1875,  and 
was  further  entrusted  by  Chief  Hayes  with  the  captaincy  of  the 


286  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

night  watch.  In  this  position  he  comported  himself  so  actively 
that  at  the  next  election  of  constables  he  was  defeated  at  the 
polls  by  those  who  preferred  less  interference  with  their  pastimes 
after  sunset.  To  their  dismay,  the  selectmen  at  once  appointed 
Hatch  chief  of  police.  He  took  the  office  in  April,  1876,  and 
held  it  until  June,  1881;  and  to  him,  under  the  selectmen,  fell 
the  task  of  first  organizing  in  the  town  a  permanent  police  force 
for  service  day  and  night. 

This  was  accomplished  in  1876.  The  regular  force,  in  April, 
1877,  consisted  of  John  M.  Hatch  (chief),  John  H.  Hadsell 
(captain),  Daniel  Barry,  James  W.  Fuller,  James  Solon,  L.  R. 
Abbe,  and  Patrick  Cassidy.  Each  of  the  seven  men  was  on  duty 
twelve  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four.  The  force,  during  the  year 
1876-1877,  made  256  arrests.  The  chief,  who  was  no  respecter 
of  persons,  classified  one  of  the  arrested  individuals  by  profession 
as  a  "Justice  of  the  Peace",  and  two  as  "Editors". 

While  it  would  be  a  distortion  to  say  that  the  Pittsfield  of 
1876  was  other  than  an  orderly  community,  it  is  true  that  there 
was  a  small  element  to  which  the  novel  presence  of  uniformed 
officers  on  the  streets  was  an  irritating  challenge.  Of  this  ele- 
ment, the  amiable  desire  was  not  the  commission  of  felonies  but 
the  joining  of  combat  with  the  new  chief  and  his  force.  Hatch 
was  well-equipped  for  encounters  of  this  kind  both  by  nature  and 
by  experience,  a  hardy,  compactly  built,  energetic  man,  faithful 
in  his  duty  to  the  town.  He  seems,  however,  to  have  been 
sometimes  indiscreet  in  speech,  and  as  a  consequence  often  to 
have  been  in  water  at  least  tepid  with  some  portion  of  the  public. 

The  hard  times  of  1873-1878  so  increased  the  number  of  the 
transient  poor  that  during  the  year  ending  in  March,  1878,  2,240 
of  them  were  sheltered  in  the  flimsy,  narrow  police  station  on 
School  Street,  where  they  were  nourished  on  crackers,  at  an  an- 
nual expense  of  $40,  and  where  in  the  winter  months  coffee  was 
administered  to  those  who  shoveled  snow  from  the  crosswalks. 
Under  the  crowded  conditions,  a  description  of  the  nightly  state 
of  things  in  the  lockup  became  almost  impossible,  even  for  the 
plain-spoken  chief.  Furthermore,  the  detention  cells  opened 
directly  upon  the  "tramp  room";  general  jail  deliveries  could  be 
prevented  only  with  difficulty,  and  jail  riots  could  not  be  pre- 


LAW  AND  ORDER  287 

vented  at  all.  In  1879  the  town  built  a  new,  brick  station  house, 
for  which  the  appropriation  was  $2,800  and  which  still  stands,  as 
the  front  part  of  the  present  police  station. 

James  McKenna,  a  tall  veteran  of  the  Civil  War,  succeeded 
Hatch  in  the  position  of  chief  of  the  force  in  June,  1881.  He 
served  for  five  years,  and  was  followed  by  John  Nicholson,  who 
became  chief  of  police  November  thirtieth,  1886,  and  retained 
the  position,  under  the  town  and  city  governments,  until  1905, 
when  he  resigned  because  of  his  appointment  as  high  sheriff  of 
Berkshire  County. 

In  the  later  years  of  the  town  government,  each  member  of 
the  force  was  annually  appointed  by  the  board  of  selectmen,  and 
appointed  orally,  moreover,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  entire 
board.  Perhaps  this  little  yearly  ceremony  tended  to  impress 
upon  the  men  a  sense  of  their  responsibility  to  the  public;  per- 
haps it  reminded  them  that  at  the  end  of  each  period  of  twelve 
months  they  might  fail  of  reappointment  if  they  had  shown 
themselves  ineffective.  Perhaps  it  did  neither,  but  at  any  rate 
the  town  police  of  Pittsfield,  under  John  Nicholson,  exhibited 
commendable  efficiency  and  discipline;  and  the  morale  then  ac- 
quired continued  after  the  small  force  of  fourteen  officers,  in 
1891,  entered  the  service  of  the  city,  under  the  same  capable 
leadership. 

In  the  first  year  of  the  city  government,  Pittsfield's  police 
force  mustered  seventeen  men,  who  were  called  upon  to  make 
1,033  arrests.  The  station  house  in  1897  was  substantially  en- 
larged, and  apparently  just  in  time,  for  during  that  year  the 
number  of  wayfarers  who  voluntarily  sought  lodgings  there  rose 
to  the  unprecedented  total  of  4,480.  A  patrol  wagon  was  first 
placed  in  commission  in  1903,  and  an  electric  signal  system  on  the 
streets  in  1906.  In  1915  there  were  upon  the  force  the  chief,  a 
captain,  an  inspector,  a  sergeant,  thirty-three  patrolmen,  and  a 
matron.  When  John  Nicholson  resigned  from  the  office  of  chief 
of  police,  in  1905,  William  G,  White  was  promoted  to  the  position. 
The  latter's  resignation,  after  a  service  of  thirty-two  years  in  the 
department,  took  effect  in  January,  1913,  and  Daniel  P.  Flynn 
succeeded  him  in  the  following  March.  Mr.  Flynn,  born  in 
Palmer,  Massachusetts,  in  1860,  began  his  long  and  faithful  ser- 


288  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

vice  on  Pittsfield's  police  force  in  1887.  While  holding  the 
office  of  chief,  he  died  at  Pittsfield,  May  eighth,  1915.  On 
September  thirteenth  of  the  same  year,  John  L.  Sullivan,  the 
present  chief,  was  appointed. 

A  record  of  Pittsfield's  police  cannot  be  concluded  without 
honoring  the  name  of  Michael  Leonard.  Captain  Leonard,  a 
veteran  of  the  force,  gave  his  life  to  save  the  lives  of  others,  ac- 
cording to  the  precepts  of  his  duty.  On  the  evening  of  May 
thirty-first,  1898,  he  was  clearing  the  railroad  tracks  at  the 
Union  Station  and  assisting  to  a  place  of  safety  some  helplessly 
bewildered  spectators  among  the  throngs  gathered  there  to  wit- 
ness the  passing  of  troops  enlisted  for  the  Spanish  war;  he  was 
struck  by  a  locomotive;  and  he  died  on  the  following  day, 
June  first,  at  the  House  of  Mercy.  His  death  touched  the 
community  deeply. 

The  town  became  the  headquarters  of  Berkshire  County's 
organization  for  the  enforcement  of  law  when  the  county  seat 
was  removed  from  Lenox  to  Pittsfield  and  the  new  county  build- 
ings were  finished  in  1871.  Graham  A.  Root  was  then  the  high 
sheriff  of  the  county.  He  was  born  in  Sheffield,  Massachusetts, 
August  first,  1820.  In  1855,  being  a  member  of  the  General 
Court,  he  was  appointed  high  sheriff  by  Governor  Gardner,  and 
two  years  later,  when  the  office  was  made  elective,  he  was  chosen 
for  the  position  by  the  voters  of  the  county,  who  regularly  re- 
elected him  until  he  declined  the  nomination  in  1880.  He  died 
in  office  on  December  third,  1880,  having  been  high  sheriff  for 
twenty-five  years.  Few  men  were  so  popular  or  so  well-known, 
not  only  in  Pittsfield  but  throughout  Berkshire.  His  person  was 
imposing.  A  genial  and  companionable  man,  he  could  assume 
on  formal  occasions  great  stateliness  of  port.  He  held  the  office 
longer  than  any  other  high  sheriff  of  the  county,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Henry  Clinton  Brown.  Sheriff  Root's  immediate 
successor  was  Hiram  B.  Wellington,  who  served  until  1887  and  is 
now  a  special  justice  of  the  District  Court  of  Central  Berkshire. 
He  was  followed  in  the  shrievalty  by  John  Crosby. 

John  Crosby  was  born  in  Sheffield,  February  fifteenth,  1829, 
and  died  in  Pittsfield,  December  seventeenth,  1902.  As  one  of 
Sheriff  Root's  assistants,  he  came  to  Pittsfield  from  Stockbridge 


HENRY  L.  DAWES 
1816—1903 


JAMES  M.  BARKER 
1839-1905 


WILLIAM  E.   TILLOTSON 
1842—1906 


ROBERT  W.  ADAM 
1825—1911 


LAW  AND  ORDER  289 

in  1869,  and  held  the  office  of  high  sheriff  of  the  county  for  nine 
years,  beginning  in  1887.  Otherwise,  and  under  both  the  town 
and  city  governments,  he  was  often  in  the  public  service,  for 
which  he  was  thoroughly  adapted  by  the  possession  of  the  quali- 
ties of  integrity,  good  judgment,  and  urbanely  resolute  decision. 
To  the  office  of  high  sheriff  he  brought  its  traditional  physical 
dignity  and  grace  of  presence;  and  his  conduct  of  its  duties  was 
marked  by  kindliness  as  well  as  firmness. 

Succeeding  Sheriff  Crosby,  on  January  first,  1896,  Charles 
W.  Fuller  became  high  sheriff  of  the  county.  He  was  born  in 
Great  Harrington  in  1858,  he  had  been  a  deputy  under  Sheriff 
Wellington,  and  he  was  chief  of  police  of  North  Adams  at  the 
time  of  his  first  election  to  the  shrievalty.  Having  served  for 
nine  years.  Sheriff  Fuller  died  at  Pittsfield,  February  first,  1905. 
To  fill  the  vacancy  occasioned  by  his  death.  Governor  Douglas 
appointed  John  Nicholson,  then  Pittsfield's  police  chief,  and 
the  voters  of  the  county  have  since  retained  him  continuously  in 
the  office. 

The  county  jail  on  Second  Street  was  twice  the  scene  of  exe- 
cution by  hanging,  before  the  legislature  enacted  that  the  legal 
penalty  of  death  should  be  paid  thereafter  at  the  state  prison  in 
Charleston.  John  Ten  Eyck  was  hanged  at  Pittsfield,  August 
sixteenth,  1878,  for  a  double  murder  committed  in  Sheffield,  un- 
der circumstances  of  peculiar  atrocity,  on  the  evening  of  Thanks- 
giving Day  in  the  previous  year;  and  William  Coy,  convicted  of 
killing  John  Whalen  in  the  village  of  Washington  in  August,  1891, 
suffered  death  on  the  gallows  in  Pittsfield  on  March  third,  1893. 
Coy,  it  is  believed,  was  the  only  white  man  ever  hanged  in 
Berkshire  County  for  the  crime  of  murder. 


CHAPTER  XX 
FIRE  DEPARTMENT 

THE  force  of  volunteer  firemen  was  in  1876  well-organized, 
well-equipped,  spirited,  and  competent.  It  had  recently 
passed  through  a  period  of  revival.  The  fire  district,  in 
1870,  had  purchased  uniforms  for  the  firemen,  who  had  thereto- 
fore been  obliged  so  to  provide  themselves  from  their  own  funds. 
Two  steam  fire  engines,  bought  by  the  town,  had  been  first  used 
by  the  department  in  1872.  In  1873  the  engine  houses  on 
School  Street  had  been  partly  rebuilt,  and  on  July  third,  1874, 
the  district  had  appropriated  $2,000  for  the  erection  of  a  brick 
hose  tower.  And  not  the  least  of  the  causes  of  the  renewed 
efficiency  of  the  department  in  1876  was  the  fact  that  its  master- 
ful and  strenuous  chief  engineer  was  Deacon  Jabez  L.  Peck, 
who  officially  reported  of  a  fire  in  1875  that  '*by  faithful  and 
prompt  attendance,  and  by  overruling  Providence,  the  injury 
was  slight." 

There  were  four  fire  companies.  The  oldest  in  point  of  con- 
tinuous organization  was  the  Housatonic  Company,  formed  in 
1844.  This  company  had  charge  of  the  steamer  "Edwin  Clapp," 
and  was  housed  in  a  building  on  School  Street,  behind  the  Baptist 
Church.  The  George  Y.  Learned  Company,  with  a  steamer  of 
the  same  name,  occupied  the  south  half  of  a  wooden  house  facing 
the  east  termination  of  School  Street;  and  the  S.  W.  Morton 
Company,  custodian  of  a  hand  engine  belonging  to  the  Boston 
and  Albany  Railroad,  had  quarters  on  Depot  Street.  These 
engine  companies  were  known  more  familiarly  as  "Number 
One",  "Number  Two",  and  "Number  Three".  They  maintained 
hose  carts,  in  addition  to  their  engines,  and  of  each  the  full  com- 
plement of  membership  was  fifty  men.  The  Greylock  Hook  and 
Ladder  Company  of  twenty-five  members  kept  its  truck  and 
equipment  in  the  north  half  of  the  wooden  house  at  the  end  of 


FIRE  DEPARTMENT  291 

School  Street,  of  which  the  south  part  was  tenanted  by  the 
George  Y.  Learned  Company. 

For  the  erection  of  this  two-company  house,  the  district  had 
appropriated  $950  in  1853,  and  had  voted  at  the  same  time  to  ex- 
pend $450  for  the  renovation  of  the  original  engine  house,  built 
in  1844  and  occupied  for  nine  years  by  three  companies.  The 
latter  house  was  severely  damaged  by  fire  in  1859,  and  the  brick 
building,  which  is  the  present  headquarters  of  the  Pittsfield  Vet- 
eran Firemen's  Association,  was  then  erected  for  the  use  of  Num- 
ber One  Company.  The  two  hand  engines,  purchased  by  the  dis- 
trict in  1844,  constituted  in  1876  the  reserve  equipment  of  the 
department.  A  few  years  later,  one  of  them  was  stationed  at  the 
factory  village  of  Pontoosuc,  where  a  large  volunteer  engine  and 
hose  company  was  formed.  This  organization  made  its  first  public 
appearance  at  a  local  muster  in  1880,  and  dismayed  the  older 
companies  by  bearing  off  honors  in  competition. 

Each  company  was  an  individual  organization,  chose  its  own 
officers,  and  controlled  the  admission  of  new  members,  under  the 
approval  of  the  district's  board  of  engineers.  Upon  the  second 
floor  of  the  engine  houses  were  the  rooms  for  the  company  meet- 
ings, which  were,  in  effect,  club  parlors.  Rivalry  between  the 
companies  was  strong,  and  by  this  the  pubHc  was  in  the  main  a 
gainer,  because  the  most  obvious  way  to  show  superiority  was 
through  the  display  of  alertness,  competence,  and  daring  at  a  fire. 
There  the  work  of  the  companies  often  was  not  dependent  solely 
upon  the  active  members.  The  chief  engineer  in  1876  was  of  the 
opinion  that  "the  efficiency  and  discipline  of  the  department  is 
largely  due  to  the  very  many  veteran  firemen  who  still  'run  with 
the  machine'  ".  A  considerable  number  of  the  town's  influential 
men  had  been,  at  one  time  or  another,  members  of  the  two  older 
companies;  and  although  they  did  not,  all  of  them,  in  1876  "run 
with  the  machine",  they  retained  a  salutary  interest  in  the  affairs 
of  the  department. 

Until  1883,  five  members  only  of  the  fire  department  were 
paid.  They  were  an  engineer  and  a  stoker  for  each  steamer,  and 
a  caretaker  of  the  hose  and  hose  tower.  Men  joined  the  depart- 
ment merely  because  they  wanted  to;  and,  while  craving  for 
lively  fellowship  and  adventure  had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  this 


292  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

inclination,  an  earnest  desire  to  help  neighbors  in  time  of  sudden 
need  was  by  no  means  absent.  It  is  remembered  of  the  old  vol- 
unteer fire  companies  of  Pittsfield  that  the  humorous  shirker,  who 
flinched  in  an  emergency,  was  not  the  most  popular  frequenter  of 
the  clubrooms.  The  department  was  a  significant  part  of  the 
community  life,  teaching  its  members  to  value  a  man  otherwise 
than  by  his  social  graces  or  his  bank  account;  and  beneath  its 
more  or  less  boisterous  fun  lessons  were  to  be  learned  of  honest 
civic  duty. 

The  chief  engineer  was  elected  yearly  at  the  meeting  of  the 
fire  district.  Jabez  L.  Peck,  who  had  become  chief  of  the  depart- 
ment first  in  1859  and  had  then  so  served  for  five  years,  was  again 
chosen  in  1873.  He  was  re-elected  annually  until  1878,  when  he 
was  succeeded  by  William  H.  Teeling. 

Mr.  Teeling  was  born  in  East  Albany,  New  York,  July  sixth, 
1820,  and  became  in  1838  a  resident  of  Pittsfield,  where  he  died 
on  November  twenty-fourth,  1900.  He  conducted  a  large 
bakery  which  was  in  the  front  rank  of  the  town's  minor  indus- 
tries. His  connection  with  the  fire  department  was  of  long 
standing,  dating  back,  indeed,  to  the  formation  in  1844  of  the 
Housatonic  Engine  Company,  of  whose  by-laws  he  was  one  of  the 
original  signers.  As  a  chief  engineer,  he  was  enthusiastic  and 
picturesque. 

George  S.  Willis,  Jr.,  followed  William  H.  Teeling,  being 
elected  by  the  district  in  1882.  Mr.  Willis  was  a  native  of  Pitts- 
field, where  he  was  born  in  1841.  To  the  performance  of  his 
duties  as  chief  engineer  of  the  department  he  devoted  more  than 
ordinary  zeal  and  time,  for  he  was  an  energetic,  bustling,  pro- 
gressive man,  fond  of  accomplishing  improvements,  and  per- 
sistent in  his  desire  to  discard  outdated  methods.  His  industry 
seems  to  have  been  appreciated  by  the  fire  district,  for  he  was 
the  first  chief  engineer  to  receive  a  salary,  and  the  first  to  be  pro- 
vided with  office  room  for  the  transaction  of  business.  Popular 
with  firemen  throughout  the  state,  he  left  Pittsfield  shortly  after 
he  ceased  to  be  chief  engineer  in  1887,  and  engaged  himself  in 
Boston  in  the  sale  of  fire  department  supplies.  On  December 
fifth,  1909,  he  died  at  Sandwich,  New  Hampshire;  his  grave  is  in 
the  Pittsfield  cemetery. 


FIRE  DEPARTMENT  293 

In  1887  George  W.  Branch  was  elected  chief  engineer,  and 
served  until  the  abolition  of  the  fire  district.  As  first  assistants 
to  the  chief  engineer,  the  district  chose,  during  the  period  from 
1876  to  1891,  Edwin  Clapp,  George  S.  Willis,  Jr.,  William  G. 
Backus,  Erastus  C.  Carpenter,  Terence  H.  McEnany,  and  John 
J.  Powers. 

In  the  fire  district's  area  of  about  four  square  miles  there  were, 
in  1876,  sixty-one  street  hydrants  and  sixteen  water  tanks. 
The  latter  were  of  great  importance.  "Within  a  radius  of  400 
feet  of  the  west  end  of  the  Park",  reported  the  chief,  "there  are 
contained  in  seven  fire  tanks  more  than  133,000  gallons  of  water 
— a  quantity  suSicient,  in  case  of  Ashley  water  being  shut  off,  to 
supply  both  our  steamers  nearly  six  hours".  The  number  of 
street  hydrants  was  increased  slowly  by  the  fire  district.  In  1880 
it  was  72;  in  1890,  the  last  year  of  fire  district  government,  it 
was  101.  After  twenty-five  years  of  city  government,  the  num- 
ber of  street  hydrants  was,  in  1915,  573. 

Until  1883,  alarms  of  fire  were  given  in  haphazard  village 
fashion,  by  ringing  church  bells.  This  sound  was  liable  to  mis- 
interpretation by  the  zealous  firemen.  The  report  of  Chief 
Engineer  Peck  notes  that  "on  the  twenty-fifth  of  February 
(1878)  a  meeting  was  held  at  the  South  Church  for  the  purpose 
of  receiving  subscriptions  for  the  liquidation  of  the  church  debt. 
The  contribution  was  so  generous  that  the  amount  of  the  indebt- 
edness was  substantially  all  subscribed,  whereupon  the  sexton 
rang  the  bell  as  a  manifestation  of  his  happiness  over  the  result. 
The  ringing  was  mistaken  for  an  alarm,  and  the  department 
promptly  turned  out".  Often  the  bell  alarm  was  supplemented 
by  blowing  the  steam  whistle  at  Butler  and  Merrill's  woodwork- 
ing shop  on  North  Street. 

In  1876  the  fire  district  voted  that  a  signal  "such  as  the  engi- 
neers may  decide  upon,  be  requested  to  be  used  by  the  different 
steam  whistles  in  town  to  give  an  alarm";  and  in  1877  a  com- 
mittee was  appointed  "to  examine  and  test  the  apparatus  now 
ready  for  trial  to  give  a  continuous  alarm  for  fire,  connected 
with  the  bell  on  the  First  Congregational  Church".  The  district 
appropriated  $150  in  1881  for  "putting  in  a  telephonic  alarm  in 
the  Police  Headquarters,  and  to  provide  a  watchman  at  night 


294  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

thereat  to  answer  the  telephone  fire  alarms".  In  1882  money 
was  voted  by  the  district  for  installing  a  telegraphic  alarm  system, 
valued  at  $5,000,  for  which  the  sounder  was  the  bell  of  the  First 
Church,  and  this  was  placed  in  commission  in  January  of  the 
following  year,  with  twenty-two  street  boxes.  The  bell  alarm 
was  reinforced  in  1884,  by  utilizing  also  the  steam  whistle  of  the 
Terry  Clock  Company's  shop  on  South  Church  Street.  But 
many  citizens,  then,  as  later,  desired  a  more  noisy  alarm.  It  is 
apparent  that  Chief  Engineer  Willis  was  ready  to  give  them  ample 
satisfaction;  he  officially  recommended  that  the  height  of  the 
hose  tower  be  increased  and  that  a  bell  weighing  3,000  pounds, 
with  a  striker,  be  placed  therein,  and  that  bell  strikers  be  installed 
also  in  the  towers  of  St.  Joseph's  and  the  South  Street  Churches, 
thus  obtaining,  in  case  of  fire,  the  sound  of  three  large  bells  and  a 
steam  whistle.  The  mere  suggestion,  which  was  not  adopted, 
appears  to  have  quieted  the  community.  Subsequently  the  fire 
alarm  system  was  connected  with  the  shop  whistle  of  the  Pitts- 
field  Electric  Company;  and  in  1915  an  apparatus  was  installed 
at  the  central  fire  department  house,  which  gave  the  alarm  by  a 
"hooter",  operated  by  compressed  air.  The  number  of  fire  alarm 
boxes  was  seventy-one  in  1915. 

During  the  final  fifteen  years  of  the  fire  district  government, 
the  improvement  of  the  apparatus  in  charge  of  the  fire  depart- 
ment kept  a  pace  reasonably  equal  with  the  public  need.  Each 
of  the  three  engine  companies  undertook  to  prov'de  itself,  at  its 
own  expense,  with  a  new  hose  cart.  The  cart  so  purchased  by 
the  George  Y.  Learned  Company  was  a  source  of  especial  pride  to 
the  members  of  Number  Two.  In  1880  the  district  bought  for 
the  use  of  the  Hook  and  Ladder  Company  a  ladder  capable  of  ex- 
tension to  the  unprecedented  height  of  fifty  feet,  and  concerning 
it  the  chief  engineer's  report  explained  that  a  ladder  was  desired 
which  could  be  lengthened  "or  shortened  so  as  to  reach  the  rooms 
over  the  stores  in  the  town's  large  buildings".  The  district  in 
1886  further  increased  the  efficiency  of  the  Hook  and  Ladder 
Company  by  supplying  it  with  a  new  truck.  The  most  substan- 
tial addition  to  the  equipment  of  the  department,  however,  was 
made  in  1885,  when  the  town  purchased  a  third  steam  fire  engine. 
At  first  it  was  not  placed  in  the  hands  of  an  organized  company. 


FIRE  DEPARTMENT  295 

but  was  held  in  reserve.  Horses  for  drawing  the  heavier  appara- 
tus were  provided  by  various  livery  stables,  among  which  rivalry 
in  alertness  produced  prompt  action. 

In  the  meantime,  the  manual  force  of  the  department  was  in- 
creased by  the  organization  in  1883  of  a  fifth  volunteer  company. 
It  was  called  the  "Protectives,  Number  One",  and  it  was  formally 
accepted  by  the  fire  district  in  1884.  The  company  was  intended 
to  be  a  fire  police,  and  its  duty  was  to  protect  property  in  build- 
ings endangered  by  fire.  Its  equipment  included  waterproof 
covers  and  hand  extinguishers,  carried  originally  on  the  ancient 
Pontoosuc  hose  cart,  and  afterward  on  a  horse-drawn  wagon. 
The  Protectives  had  headquarters  in  the  supply  house  connected 
with  the  hose  tower. 

For  the  accommodation  of  the  S.  W.  Morton  Company,  the 
town  provided  a  new  house  in  1887.  The  company  had  been  dis- 
possessed of  its  quarters  on  Depot  Street  and  was  using  a  room 
in  a  Fenn  Street  block  for  its  meetings,  while  its  apparatus  was 
stored  in  the  town's  tool  house.  Its  new  engine  house,  for  which 
the  appropriation  was  $7,000,  stood  on  the  east  side  of  North 
Street,  between  the  railroad  bridge  and  Melville  Street,  and  was 
a  well-designed  structure  of  brick.  When  it  was  ready  for  oc- 
cupancy, the  third,  or  "Silsby",  steamer  was  consigned  to  the 
custody  of  its  tenants. 

The  chief  engineer  first  received  a  salary  in  1883,  and  the 
gradual  change  from  a  purely  volunteer  to  a  paid  fire  department 
in  Pittsfield  was  again  noticeable  in  1885.  In  the  previous  year, 
arrangements  had  been  made  whereby  four  or  five  men  slept 
every  night  in  each  engine  house,  and  in  1885  these  "bunkers", 
so-called,  began  to  receive  a  yearly  compensation,  which  at  first 
was  thirty  dollars.  But  until  the  town  became  a  city,  and  the 
old  fire  district  went  out  of  existence,  the  department  remained 
essentially  a  volunteer  organization.  The  recommendation  of 
Chief  Engineer  Branch  in  1889  that  the  manual  force  be  reduced 
to  twelve  men  to  a  company  met  with  little  favor.  Even  after 
the  installation  of  the  city  government,  the  fire  companies  re- 
tained much  of  that  esprit  de  corps  characteristic  of  independent 
volunteer  bodies,  and  this  was  especially  true  of  the  Protectives. 
However,  the  passing  of  the  regulation  of  all  fire  department  af- 


296  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

fairs  into  the  hands  of  a  committee  of  the  city  council  so  altered 
conditions  in  the  department,  and  by  city  ordinances  it  was  so 
reduced  in  membership  and  so  reorganized,  that  the  year  1891 
may  be  considered  as  the  termination  of  the  distinctively  volun- 
teer system. 

From  1876  to  1891,  the  Housatonic  Company  had  for  its 
foremen  Edwin  Clapp,  John  S.  Smith,  and  Harley  E.  Jones.  Its 
assistant  foremen  were  John  S.  Smith,  John  Howieson,  Lucien  D. 
Hazard,  F.  V.  Hadsell,  and  Sanford  Desmond.  Clark  F.  Hall 
was  its  treasurer  during  the  entire  period  of  fifteen  years,  while 
the  successive  clerks  were  William  F,  Osborne,  Henry  V.  Wolli- 
son,  John  Howieson,  Harley  E.  Jones,  James  Goewey,  and  G.  H. 
Gerst. 

The  continuity  of  organization  maintained  by  the  Housatonic 
Company  was  unique.  Edwin  Clapp,  first  elected  foreman  in 
1846,  was  annually  so  chosen  until  1883,  when  he  declined  the 
nomination;  other  officers  had  periods  of  service  as  remarkably 
long.  By  the  internal  harmony  thus  displayed,  company  pride 
and  self-respect  were  fostered,  as  well  as  by  a  good  record  of  use- 
fulness to  the  community.  The  organization  boasted  of  being 
the  oldest  engine  company,  in  point  of  continuous  service,  in 
Massachusetts.  Its  spirit  was  always  the  democratic,  conserva- 
tive, and  reliable  spirit  of  its  village  days,  and  upon  its  roll  of 
both  active  and  veteran  members  were  names  of  citizens  broadly 
representative  of  the  entire  town. 

The  large  "anniversary  sociables"  of  the  Housatonic  Company 
were  festal  events  which  commingled  dining,  music,  dancing,  and, 
until  about  1879,  a  good  deal  of  oratory.  In  1885  the  company 
first  joined  the  George  Y.  Learned  and  Protective  Companies  in 
organizing  a  yearly  "Union  Firemen's  Ball"  at  the  Academy  of 
Music,  which  took  the  place  of  the  former  anniversary  celebra- 
tions. During  the  winter  months,  the  members  of  the  Housa- 
tonic Company,  as  well  as  of  the  other  companies  of  the  volunteer 
fire  department,  were  in  the  habit  of  entertaining  their  friends 
of  the  gentler  sex  at  "socials"  in  the  company  parlors;  and  the 
ladies  reciprocated  by  elaborately  decorating  the  company's 
apparatus  with  flowers  on  inspection  and  muster  days. 

The  foreman  in  1876  of  the  George  Y.  Learned  Company, 


FIRE  DEPARTMENT  297 

Number  Two,  was  Warner  G.  Morton,  who  was  followed  in  office, 
until  1891,  by  John  Allen  Root,  John  Nicholson,  Theodore  L. 
Allen,  William  F.  Francis,  and  C.  I.  Lincoln.  The  assistant 
foremen  were  Louis  Blain,  Theodore  L.  Allen,  William  F.  Francis, 
Harry  A.  Taylor,  Frank  Smith,  John  Noble,  A.  W.  Stewart,  and 
F.  J,  Clark.  The  clerks  were  Theodore  L,  Allen,  Charles  H. 
Brown,  William  F.  Francis,  Frank  C.  Backus,  Harry  A.  Taylor, 
Frank  Harrison,  Enos  L  Meron,  Joseph  E.  Purches,  and  Jerry 
Coonley.  Albert  Backus,  Charles  H.  Brown,  Theodore  L.  Allen, 
and  Arthur  Smith  were  the  treasurers. 

Apparently  the  George  Y.  Learned  Company,  while  diligent 
in  evincing  dash  and  competence  on  duty,  cultivated  its  fraternal 
life  with  unusual  ardor.  The  company  seems  to  have  been  dis- 
tinguished, at  least  after  1876,  by  the  invigoration  of  a  youthful, 
pushing  element,  fond  of  fine  equipment  and  uniforms,  and  of 
striving,  whether  on  actual  service  or  not,  to  excel  all  rivals. 
Its  hospitalities  were  frequent;  its  field  days  and  excursions  were 
popular;  and  its  annual  concert  and  ball,  held  at  the  Academy 
of  Music,  was  an  occasion  of  much  renown.  The  organization, 
more  conspicuously  perhaps  than  the  other  companies,  fulfilled 
every  purpose  of  a  social  club. 

An  entry  on  the  record  book,  under  the  date  of  January 
seventh,  1875,  is  now  curious.  "Moved  that  ladies  be  admitted 
to  our  company  as  members,  which  led  to  some  debate,  as  the 
idea  seemed  both  new  and  novel.  Still,  a  general  feeling  pre- 
vailed among  those  present  for  something  of  this  character  on 
account  of  the  social  infiuences  attending  such  a  movement,  and 
it  was  Voted — that  ladies  be  admitted  to  this  company  as  hon- 
orary members".  That  this  "both  new  and  novel"  scheme  was 
carried  into  effect,  does  not  appear.  It  was  in  1875,  too,  that  the 
company's  clerk  "advocated  the  formation  of  a  glee  club,  with  an 
instructor".  The  proposal  may  have  been  inspired  by  an  offer  made 
by  William  Renne  in  1874  to  give  a  prize  of  twenty-five  dollars 
to  the  volunteer  fire  company  which  should  excel  in  the  singing 
of  the  hymn  "Coronation"  at  a  competition  in  the  Methodist 
Church.  This  musical  contest,  however,  the  firemen  disdained. 
The  members  of  Number  Two  turned  to  an  enterprise  less  me- 
lodious;   and  under  the  name  of  the  "George  Y.  Learned  Bat- 


298  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

tery"  twelve  of  them  were  organized  in  1876  as  a  squad  of  artil- 
lerymen, taking  charge  of  a  fieldpiece,  which,  for  the  purpose  of 
firing  salutes,  had  been  purchased  for  $658  by  a  "Fourth-of-July 
Association"  of  citizens. 

The  S.  W.  Morton  Company,  Number  Three,  was  long  handi- 
capped by  inadequate  quarters  and  inferior  apparatus;  and,  be- 
cause in  its  earlier  days  it  was  chiefly  composed  of  employees  of 
the  railroad,  its  personnel  was  often  necessarily  changed  and  it 
therefore  lacked  solidarity.  Its  stalwart  and  energetic  hose 
company,  however,  was  always  a  valuable  component  of  the 
department.  From  1876  to  1887,  the  foremen  of  Number  Three 
were  Michael  Fitzgerald,  James  Goewey,  Terence  H.  McEnany, 
M.  F.  Doyle,  M.  J,  Connors,  John  Powers,  and  James  Reagan. 
In  1887  the  company  was  rejuvenated  by  its  installation  in  the 
new  house  on  North  Street.  Between  1887  and  1891,  the  foremen 
were  James  Reagan,  J.  J.  Bastion,  and  J.  E.  Doolan;  the  assistant 
foremen  were  John  Kelly  and  James  O'Connell;  the  clerks  were 
J.  J.  Bastion,  W.  Carley,  and  James  Cummings;  and  the  treas- 
urers were  Thomas  Murray  and  Dennis  Haylon. 

The  Greylock  Hook  and  Ladder  Company,  characterized 
consistently  by  good  discipline,  had  for  foremen,  after  1875, 
Chester  Hopkins,  P.  Roberts,  J.  H.  Granger,  R.  Crandall,  San- 
ford  Carpenter,  E.  C.  Carpenter,  Charles  Miller,  George  W. 
Frey,  and  William  McCarry.  Its  assistant  foremen  were  P. 
Roberts,  William  Carpenter,  Charles  Miller,  Sanford  Carpenter, 
Chester  Hopkins,  John  Corkhill,  E.  C.  Carpenter,  William  H. 
Hunt,  and  P.  H.  Honiker.  Its  clerks  were  C.  Watkins,  C.  H. 
Miller,  James  Burlingame,  W.  A.  Harrington,  Frank  Robbins, 
W.  G.  Keyes,  Frank  Smith,  and  Dwight  A.  Clark;  and  B.  F. 
Robbins,  Lyman  E.  Fields  and  Michael  Meagher  served  as  its 
treasurers. 

The  company  of  Protectives,  from  its  formation  in  1883  to 
the  formal  disbanding  in  1907,  was  animated  by  the  enthusiasm 
natural  to  an  organization  of  which  the  duty  was  unique  and  of 
which  the  membership  was  somewhat  carefully  restricted.  In 
its  early  years,  the  company  was  encouraged  both  by  Chief 
Engineer  Willis  and  by  the  fire  insurance  authorities;  and  for 
this  encouragement  there  seems  to  have  been  good  reason.     It 


FIRE  DEPARTMENT  299 

cannot  be  denied  that  in  the  volunteer  days  of  Pittsfield's  fire 
department  the  rush  of  rivalry  between  the  different  hose  and 
engine  companies  occasionally  led  to  disregard  of  the  protection 
of  property,  and  that  needless  damage,  through  causes  other  than 
fire,  was  not  quite  uncommon.  The  members  of  the  Protectives, 
having  the  authority  of  special  police  officers,  were  called  upon 
to  remedy  such  conditions.  They  were,  in  the  first  instance, 
drawn  mostly  from  the  George  Y.  Learned  Company. 

The  captains  of  the  Protectives  from  1883  to  1891,  were 
Theodore  L.  Allen,  J.  B.  Harrison,  and  Edward  S.  Davenport; 
and  the  lieutenants  were  J.  B,  Harrison,  Walter  Watson,  William 
P.  Learned,  and  Frank  W.  Hill.  Those  who  served  the  company 
as  clerk  and  treasurer  during  the  same  period  were  James  W. 
Dewey,  James  Denny,  Frank  W.  Hill,  and  S.  Chester  Lyon. 

Some  of  the  conspicuous  opportunities  which  the  department 
had  of  proving  its  usefulness  between  1876  and  1891  may  here 
be  recorded,  although  several  have  been  mentioned  in  other 
chapters.  The  most  prolific  single  field  of  action  for  the  firemen 
during  this  period  was  afforded  by  the  barns  and  stables,  suc- 
cessively built  to  the  south  of  the  Burbank  Hotel  on  the  site  of 
the  present  railroad  station.  The  hotel  stables  were  burned 
three  times — on  December  thirty-first,  1880,  when  the  thermom- 
eter registered  a  temperature  of  twenty  degrees  below  zero,  on 
October  fourth,  1883,  and  on  October  first,  1885.  The  list  of 
destructive  fires  elsewhere  includes  those  at  the  old  medical 
college  building  on  South  Street,  on  March  thirty-first,  1876; 
at  the  Pomeroy  "satinet  mill",  on  December  fifteenth,  1876; 
at  the  "lower  stone  mill"  at  Barkerville,  on  January  tenth,  1879; 
at  the  Weller  buildings  on  North  Street,  on  April  twenty-third, 
1881;  at  Abraham  Burbank's  upper  brick  block  on  North  Street, 
on  March  sixth,  1883,  and  again  on  August  first,  1888;  at  the 
lower  Pomeroy  mill,  on  December  eighth,  1885;  at  Booth  and 
Company's  woodworking  shop  on  First  Street,  on  March  sixth, 
1886;  at  C.  H.  Booth's  silk  mill,  near  River  Street,  on  August 
tenth,  1888;  at  James  H.  Butler's  lumber  yard  on  Fenn  Street, 
December  nineteenth,  1888;  and  at  the  Bel  Air  mill  on  upper 
Wahconah  Street,  on  February  fifteenth,  1890. 

So  far  as  can  be  ascertained  from  the  chief  engineers'  reports. 


300  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

which  were  made  annually  in  April,  the  department  responded  to 
259  calls  between  April  first,  1876,  and  December  thirtieth,  1890. 
The  lowest  number  of  alarms  recorded  in  any  departmental 
year  was  eight,  in  1877-1878;  the  highest  was  thirty-two,  in 
1885-1886. 

Finally,  before  leaving  the  subject  of  the  department  under 
the  town  and  fire  district  government,  it  is  to  be  said  that  the 
memories  and  much  of  the  spirit  of  the  volunteer  period  have 
been  faithfully  and  pleasantly  preserved  by  the  Pittsfield  Veteran 
Firemen's  Association.  Having  its  home  on  School  Street,  in 
the  house  formerly  occupied  by  the  Housatonic  Company,  this 
large  association  has  been  the  means  of  maintaining  many  com- 
panionships and  many  traditions  of  other  days. 

The  reorganization  of  the  department  under  the  ordinances 
of  the  city  government  proceeded  rapidly.  In  1892  the  mem- 
bership of  each  company  was  reduced  to  fifteen;  and  in  1905 
a  revision  of  the  fire  department  ordinances  became  effective 
which  prescribed  fourteen  men  in  the  department  on  permanent 
duty,  and  fifty  in  the  "call  force".  In  1915  the  permanent 
force  numbered  thirty-five,  and  the  call  force  eighteen.  Under 
the  city  government,  the  successive  chief  engineers,  with  the 
years  in  which  they  took  ofiice,  have  been  George  W.  Branch 
(1891),  William  F.  Francis  (1896),  Lucien  D.  Hazard  (1907),  and 
William  C.  Shepard  (1911). 

The  city  lost  little  time  in  providing  new  headquarters  for  its 
remodeled  fire  department.  The  present  central  fire  station,  of 
brick,  facing  the  head  of  School  Street,  was  erected  in  1895,  and 
after  the  dedication  of  the  building,  on  September  twenty -fourth 
of  that  year,  all  divisions  of  the  Pittsfield  fire  department  were, 
for  the  first  time  in  its  history,  suitably  housed.  In  1906  a  brick 
station  was  completed  on  Tyler  Street  at  Morningside;  thither 
was  removed  the  apparatus  kept  in  the  department's  North 
Street  house,  which  was  then  abandoned.  In  1913  the  wooden 
station  at  West  Pittsfield,  tenanted  by  a  volunteer  company,  was 
damaged  by  fire  and  in  the  following  year  it  was  restored  and  en- 
larged. 

The  West  Pittsfield  Company  appears  to  have  been  formally 
organized  as  a  part  of  the  city  department  in  1905,  after  which 


FIRE  DEPARTMENT  301 

its  foremen  were  A.  N.  Parker,  Fred  Jones,  William  T.  Quinn, 
and  Joseph  Merriam.  A  steam  fire  engine  was  assigned  to  it  in 
1913.  Other  volunteer  companies  have  existed  from  time  to 
time  in  the  outlying  factory  villages  and  at  the  General  Electric 
plant,  equipped  with  hose  reels  and  hand  engines. 

The  facilities  afforded  by  the  central  station  made  more 
readily  possible  the  stabling  of  horses  by  the  department.  They 
were  first  purchased  in  1896,  and  in  1898  dependence  was  no 
longer  placed  upon  the  livery  stables.  A  chemical  engine  was 
added  to  the  apparatus  in  1899;  in  the, following  year  three 
wagons  were  used,  carrying  a  combined  chemical  and  hose  equip- 
ment, and,  though  many  fires  thereafter  were  extinguished  by 
the  chemical  engines,  an  additional  steamer  was  purchased  in 
1909.  An  automobile  fire  truck  was  first  utilized  in  1911;  in 
1912  the  department  was  equipped  with  a  so-called  "aerial 
ladder  truck,"  propelled  by  a  gasoline  and  electric  motor;  com- 
bination chemical  and  hose  motor  trucks  were  provided  in  1914; 
and  in  1915  the  use  of  horses  was  completely  given  up. 

The  purchase  of  the  aerial  ladder  was  hastened  by  an  extra- 
ordinary series  of  disastrous  fires  on  North  Street  in  1912,  be- 
ginning with  the  one  which  burned  the  Academy  of  Music  in 
the  early  morning  of  January  twenty-eighth.  Spreading  to  ad- 
jacent buildings  on  the  north  and  east,  this  conflagration  was 
the  most  savage  and  spectacular  in  the  experience  of  the  city. 
It  was  followed,  on  February  ninth,  1912,  by  the  burning  of  two 
blocks  on  the  west  side  of  North  Street,  above  Summer  Street; 
and  on  February  twenty-third  by  a  destructive  fire  in  the  block 
on  the  west  side  of  North  Street  below  Summer  Street,  which 
was  again  attacked  by  fire  on  July  fourteenth.  The  total  fire 
loss  for  the  year,  insured  and  uninsured,  was  computed  to  be 
$328,000.     The  department  responded  to  160  alarms. 

The  smallest  number  of  alarms  recorded  in  any  one  year  dur- 
ing the  quarter-century  after  1890  was  twenty-one  in  1891, 
and  the  largest  was  219  in  1914.  In  the  latter  year  the  per- 
sistence of  an  incendiary,  who  was  finally  restrained,  taxed  the 
vigilance  of  the  department.  After  1890,  some  of  the  more 
serious  fires,  besides  those  mentioned  in  the  preceding  paragraph, 
were  in  the  Brackin  block  on  North  Street,  July  fourteenth,  1891, 


302  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

and  in  Bridge's  livery  stable  on  Columbus  Avenue,  in  the  same 
year,  on  November  thirteenth;  in  Wright's  wooden  block  on 
North  Street,  February  seventeenth,  1898;  in  the  Whittlesey- 
Sabin  building  on  Cottage  Row,  February  nineteenth,  1905; 
in  the  Riley  block,  on  the  north  corner  of  Depot  and  North 
Streets,  December  twenty-sixth,  1909;  and  in  the  building  next 
north  of  the  Berkshire  Life  Insurance  Company's  building,  Jan- 
uary thirty-first,  1914. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
NEWSPAPERS 

TWO  newspapers,  the  Piitsfield  Sun  and  the  Berkshire 
County  Eagle,  were  pubhshed  in  Pittsfield  in  1876.  They 
were  weeklies;  of  the  Sun  the  day  of  issue  was  Wednesday, 
of  the  Eagle,  Thursday.  Founded  in  1800  by  Phineas  Allen 
and  conducted  by  him  and  by  his  son,  Phineas  Allen,  2nd,  for 
seventy-two  consecutive  years,  the  Sun  had  been  a  political  tract 
rather  than,  in  the  modern  sense,  a  newspaper.  Even  so  late  as 
1870  it  resembled  a  village  journal  of  the  early  part  of  the  cen- 
tury, devoting  nearly  all  of  its  space  to  national  or  state  aflFairs, 
rigidly  and  often  savagely  partisan,  and  abstemious  to  the  point 
of  prudery  in  dealing  with  the  everyday  news  of  the  town.  Its 
founder  was  a  stern  precisian  and  an  uncompromising  Democrat, 
and  of  Phineas  2nd  it  was  believed  that  he  shaped  his  editorial 
policy  solely  by  doing  what  he  judged  his  father  would  have  done 
under  similar  circumstances.  The  result  was  that  the  Sun  was, 
for  those  days,  an  old-fashioned  newspaper  in  1872,  when  Phineas 
Allen,  2nd,  turned  over  the  ownership  to  a  relative,  Theodore  L. 
Allen.  The  latter,  in  August  of  the  same  year,  sold  the  paper 
to  William  H.  Phillips,  then  of  North  Adams. 

The  Sun  at  the  time  of  its  purchase  by  Mr.  Phillips  was 
printed  in  a  brick  building,  the  Allen  block,  on  the  east  side  of 
lower  North  Street,  on  the  site  now  numbered  twenty-four. 
It  had  been  housed  on  this  land  since  1808,  having  previously 
to  that  year  had  homes  on  the  west  side  of  North  Street,  on  East 
Street,  and  on  Park  Square,  "in  Mr.  Griswold's  elegant  new 
building  west  of  the  meeting  house". 

Mr.  Phillips  had  already  acquired  newspaper  experience,  and 
in  a  school  less  conservative  than  that  of  the  Phineas  Aliens. 
Under  his  management  the  Sun  bestowed  its  rays  more  than 
formerly  upon  local  happenings,  and  showed  evidence,  whether 


304  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

for  good  or  evil,  of  modern  reporting.  Its  format  was  the  un- 
wieldy blanket  sheet,  so-called,  of  four  pages.  This  was  altered 
by  Mr.  Phillips  to  one  of  eight  pages,  with  six  columns  to  a  page. 
The  advertising  rate  was  announced  in  1876  to  be  eighteen  dol- 
lars for  the  single  insertion  of  a  column.  The  yearly  subscription 
was  two  dollars.  The  circulation  in  Berkshire  outside  of  Pitts- 
field  was  considerable  and  the  regular  correspondents  from  the 
smaller  towns  were  fain  to  include  much  sound  Democratic  doc- 
trine in  their  weekly  newsletters.  Indeed,  the  contributors  to 
the  paper  and  its  readers  throughout  the  county  had  grown  to 
constitute  what  was  in  effect  a  county  political  machine.  This 
the  new  proprietor  may  have  suspected  before  he  acquired  the 
Sun.  At  any  rate,  Mr.  Phillips  soon  offered  himself  as  a  candi- 
date for  oflBce,  and  in  1874  he  was  elected  to  the  state  senate. 
During  the  absence  of  the  owner  in  Boston,  the  acting  editor  of 
the  paper  was  Hiram  T.  Oatman,  who  had  first  come  to  Pittsfield 
in  1874  to  be  the  superintendent  of  the  Sun's  press  room. 

The  next  proprietor  of  the  newspaper  was  Horace  J.  Canfield 
of  Stockbridge,  whose  name  first  appears  as  owner  in  the  issue 
of  January  second,  1878.  Mr.  Canfield  was  also  a  member  of 
the  General  Court,  and  he  also  engaged,  as  his  acting  editor, 
Mr.  Oatman,  who  had  in  the  meantime  seceded  temporarily  to 
the  Eagle  ofiice.  The  Sun  remained  in  the  possession  of  Mr. 
Canfield  until  1882,  but  his  personal  conduct  of  the  paper  was 
intermittent.  In  August,  1878,  he  leased  it  to  a  partnership 
composed  of  James  L.  Ford  and  John  P.  Clark.  Mr.  Clark  was  a 
Pittsfield  printer,  and  Mr.  Ford  was  a  youthful  journalist  trying 
his  wings,  which  afterward  bore  him  to  a  point  of  no  slight  eleva- 
tion in  the  region  of  book  and  magazine  authorship  in  New  York. 
The  publishing  lease  of  Messrs.  Ford  and  Clark  expired  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1879,  and  in  March  of  the  same  year  Samuel  E.  Nichols 
became,  under  Mr.  Canfield,  publisher  and  editor  of  the  Sun. 
Mr.  Nichols,  simultaneously  with  editing  and  publishing  the 
newspaper,  conducted  the  former  Allen  book  store,  to  which  he 
had  added  a  department  for  the  sale  of  pianos  and  music;  and 
he  seems  to  have  assumed  too  many  burdens.  In  1882  he  was 
financially  crippled,  and  Mr.  Canfield  was  ready  to  dispose  of  the 
Sun  or  perhaps  to  discontinue  it. 


NEWSPAPERS  305 

A  few  Democrats  came  to  the  rescue  of  their  historic  organ, 
and  in  March,  1882,  the  Sun  Printing  Company  was  incor- 
porated to  purchase  the  Sun  and  the  printing  plant.  The  presi- 
dent and  treasurer  of  the  company  was  John  F.  Allen,  a  son  of 
the  Phineas  Allen  who  had  founded  the  paper  in  1800,  With 
Mr.  Allen  on  the  first  board  of  directors  were  William  R.  Plunkett, 
Francis  E.  Kernochan,  Horace  J.  Canfield,  and  John  G.  Holland. 
It  was  their  immediate  good  fortune  to  be  able  to  give  to  the 
paper  an  editor  who  could  inject  into  it  a  strong  and  racy  indi- 
viduality. 

James  Harding  was  born  in  Nutsford,  England,  July  eigh- 
teenth, 1843,  and  when  he  was  a  boy  his  parents  settled  in  the 
Massachusetts  town  of  Lee.  There  he  found  newspaper  em- 
ployment on  the  Gleaner  and  as  the  correspondent  from  Lee  of  the 
Berkshire  County  Eagle ;  and  by  the  Eagle  he  was  summoned  to 
Pittsfield  in  1868  to  be  a  member  of  its  regular  staff.  He  re- 
mained with  the  Eagle  until  1882,  when  he  became  editor  of  the 
Sun,  and  in  that  position  he  labored  for  twenty-four  years.  On 
September  sixteenth,  1906,  he  died  at  Pittsfield. 

Mr.  Harding,  while  a  vigilant  gatherer  of  news,  was  essentially 
a  humorous  writer,  and  one  of  those  humorous  writers  who,  in 
Thackeray's  words,  "appeal  to  a  great  number  of  our  other 
faculties,  besides  our  mere  sense  of  ridicule".  His  pen  could 
readily  excite  mirth,  and  it  could  as  readily  excite  scorn  or  sym- 
pathy. He  had  taught  himself  a  vivid,  exuberant  style,  which 
sometimes  led  him  into  excesses  of  plain  speaking  and  of  invec- 
tive; but  in  his  later  years  this  style  was  tempered,  and  many 
articles  appearing  in  the  Sun  during  that  period  of  Mr.  Harding's 
editorship,  some  of  which  were  appropriately  reprinted  in  a 
memorial  volume  after  his  death,  testify  to  his  cheerful  and 
charitable  philosophy  and  to  his  tenderness  of  heart. 

Meanwhile,  however,  the  competition  by  two  local  dailies 
increased  against  the  veteran  weekly,  so  far  as  the  timeliness  of 
the  publication  of  news  in  Pittsfield  was  concerned,  and  on  the 
other  hand  a  flood  of  cheap  weekly  periodicals,  with  attractive 
premium  lists,  began  to  inundate  the  rural  districts,  where  the 
generation  brought  up  to  regard  the  Sun  as  a  sort  of  household 
fixture  was  passing  away.     In  the  face  of  these  conditions  Mr. 


306  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Harding  wrought  valiantly  and,  while  his  health  permitted, 
successfully;  people  read  the  Sun  not  so  often  to  be  informed  of 
the  news  as  to  be  interested  and  usually  amused  by  Mr.  Harding's 
way  of  recording  and  commenting  upon  it,  and  the  Sun  became 
for  the  community  a  week  day  preacher,  while  it  endeavored  at 
the  same  time  to  fulfill  the  purpose  of  a  newspaper.  Pictures 
were  introduced,  and  various  magazine-like  departments  were 
included,  many  of  which  were  written,  and  written  with  literary 
artistry,  by  Mr.  Harding  under  different  pen  names.  In  1905 
the  Sun  absorbed  a  periodical  called  Berkshire  Resort  Topics,  and 
thus  a  new  department,  devoted  to  the  doings  of  summer  visitors, 
became  a  valuable  addition  to  the  paper. 

But  the  Sun  had  been  so  developed  that  it  was,  after  all, 
James  Harding  himself;  and  eleven  days  following  his  death  the 
last  number  was  issued,  on  September  twenty-seventh,  1906. 
The  paper  had  been  in  course  of  continuous  pubHcation  for  106 
years. 

The  last  number  was  published  in  a  building  on  Renne  Ave- 
nue, whence  the  Sun  Printing  Company  migrated  from  North 
Street  and  where  at  present  it  actively  carries  on  its  business  of 
job  printing.  John  F.  Allen,  the  first  president,  retained  that 
office  until  his  death,  April  twenty-third,  1887.  He  was  born  in 
Pittsfield  on  August  twenty-sixth,  1841,  and  he  inherited  his 
father's  loyalty  to  the  town  and  high  ideals  of  journalism.  He 
was  succeeded  in  the  presidency  of  the  Sun  Printing  Company  by 
William  Mink.  Mr.  Mink  was  born  in  Rhinebeck,  New  York, 
in  1832,  came  to  Pittsfield  in  1855,  and  entered  the  employ  of  the 
Eagle,  in  its  composing  room.  He  was  a  sergeant  during  the  Civil 
War  in  the  Thirty-fourth  regiment  of  Massachusetts  infantry. 
Resuming  his  trade  after  the  war,  Mr.  Mink  became  probably  the 
most  expert  printer  in  the  county,  and  his  secession  with  his 
friend  Mr.  Harding  from  the  Eagle  to  the  Sun  in  1882  had  much 
to  do  with  the  rejuvenation  of  the  latter  paper.  He  was  a  popu- 
lar figure  in  town  life  and  especially  in  Grand  Army  circles. 
On  March  thirtieth,  1896,  he  died  at  Pittsfield. 

Theodore  L.  Allen,  now  the  president  of  the  company,  suc- 
ceeded Mr.  Mink  in  1896,  and  has  since  served  continuously  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  months  when  Oliver  W.  Robbins  was  presi- 


NEWSPAPERS  307 

dent.  Major  Charles  T.  Plunkett  was  treasurer  and  business 
manager  from  1896  to  1899,  and  was  followed  in  those  offices  by 
S.  Chester  Lyon,  who  was  able  to  assume  also  many  editorial 
duties,  Mr,  Lyon  withdrew  from  the  employment  of  the  com- 
pany when  the  publication  of  the  newspaper  ceased.  Among 
other  valuable  assistants  to  Mr,  Harding  in  the  editorial  room 
was  Henry  T,  Mills,  who  worked  therein  from  1888  to  1893, 

The  Sun's  Republican  antagonist,  the  Berkshire  County  Eagle, 
was  printed  in  1876  in  the  Noble  building,  on  the  east  corner  of 
West  Street  and  Clapp  Avenue.  It  was  a  paper  of  four  huge 
pages,  each  page  being  nine  columns  in  width  and  measuring  in 
length  thirty  inches.  The  proprietors,  both  of  whom  edited  the 
Eagle  more  or  less  actively,  were  Henry  Chickering  and  William 
D,  Axtell,  This  firm  had  owned  the  paper  since  1865.  In  1876 
the  Eagle  seems  to  have  been  more  alert  and  more  informative  of 
local  occurrences  than  was  the  Sun  of  the  same  period;  but  like 
the  Sun  it  was  an  important  wheel  in  the  county  machinery  of  its 
political  party.  One  of  the  proprietors,  Mr.  Chickering,  had 
been  postmaster  of  Pittsfield  since  1861,  when  he  succeeded  in 
that  position  his  rival  editor,  Phineas  Allen,  2nd,  of  the  Sun; 
and  he  was  at  all  times  influential  among  Republicans  in  the 
western  section  of  the  state. 

Henry  Chickering  died  in  Pittsfield,  March  fifth,  1881.  He 
was  born  at  Woburn,  Massachusetts,  September  third,  1819,  and 
in  1855  came  to  Pittsfield  from  North  Adams,  where  he  had 
owned  and  conducted  the  Transcript,  and  whence  he  had  been 
elected  to  the  governor's  council  in  1852.  An  astute  and  ener- 
getic politician  and  identified  with  the  Republican  party  since  its 
formation  in  Massachusetts,  he  believed  that  the  Eagle,  in 
which  he  first  bought  an  interest  in  1853,  should  be  primarily  a 
partisan  organ.  He  continued  to  be  the  town's  postmaster 
from  1861  until  his  death. 

After  Mr.  Chickering's  death  his  interest  in  the  Eagle  was 
acquired  by  William  M.  Pomeroy,  who  remained  Mr.  Axtell's 
partner  until  March  first,  1883,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  John 
B.  Haskins.  On  December  first,  1885,  Mr.  Axtell  bought  out 
Mr.  Haskins,  and  became  sole  owner  of  the  concern. 

In  the  meantime  the  Eagle's  establishment  had  been  weaken- 


308  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

ed  by  the  withdrawal  of  James  Harding  and  WilUam  Mink,  the 
reorganized  Sun  had  become  a  vigorous  competitor,  and  the  re- 
cently launched  daily,  the  Evening  Journal,  was  slowly  gaining 
strength.  Mr.  Axtell  was  an  unusually  excellent  printer,  but  he 
was  neither  by  inclination  nor  by  regular  experience  an  editor. 
Under  his  ownership  of  the  Eagle,  much,  although  not  all,  of  the 
editorial  work  was  entrusted  to  other  hands,  which  appear  not 
to  have  been  uniformly  vigorous.  When  he  died,  the  paper  was 
little  other  than  an  unprofitable  load  upon  a  well-conducted  job 
printing  shop. 

William  D.  Axtell  was  born  at  Westhampton,  Massachusetts, 
July  twenty-second,  1820,  and  his  death  occurred  at  Pittsfield, 
March  twenty-fifth,  1887.  He  came  there  in  1842,  with  the 
Massachusetts  Eagle,  which  was  then  removed  from  Lenox,  and 
he  remained  in  Pittsfield  until  1853,  conducting  for  a  part  of  the 
time  an  independent  printing  oflBce  of  extremely  high  merit.  In 
1853  Mr.  Axtell  went  to  Northampton  to  be  foreman  of  the 
printing  plant  of  the  Hampshire  Gazette,  and  in  1865  returned  to 
Pittsfield  as  a  partner  of  Henry  Chickering  in  the  ownership  of 
the  Berkshire  County  Eagle.  He  was  a  man  of  soberly  old-fashioned 
and  quiet  literary  tastes,  with  an  old-fashioned  respect  for  the 
art  of  printing,  in  which  he  had  made  himself  extraordinarily 
proficient. 

The  issue  of  the  Eagle  of  May  nineteenth,  1887,  announced 
that  the  property  had  been  sold  by  the  administrator  of  Mr. 
Axtell's  estate  to  Marcus  H.  Rogers,  whose  name  was  not  un- 
familiar to  Berkshire  newspaper  readers.  He  had  conducted 
the  Berkshire  Courier  in  Great  Barrington  from  1865  to  1879,  and 
was  known  to  be  a  progressive  and  capable  editor.  Signs  of  this 
were  soon  perceptible  in  the  appearance  of  the  Eagle,  as  well  as  in 
its  contents.  New  machinery  and  new  type  were  installed,  and 
the  antiquated  blanket  sheet  of  four  pages  was  abandoned  and 
replaced,  with  the  issue  of  January  fifth,  1888,  by  a  more  conven- 
ient format  of  eight,  smaller,  seven-column  pages.  By  these 
alterations  the  paper  was  greatly  improved,  but  the  new  owner 
remained  in  control  hardly  long  enough  to  take  advantage  of 
them.  In  February,  1889,  he  sold  the  Eagle  to  Moses  Y.  Beach, 
of  New  York. 


NEWSPAPERS  309 

Mr.  Beach,  who  had  obtained  his  newspaper  training  on  the 
New  York  Tribune  under  Whitelaw  Reid,  continued  as  editor 
and  proprietor  of  the  Eagle  until  1891.  In  the  issue  of  March 
nineteenth  of  that  year  announcement  was  made  that  the  paper 
had  been  bought  by  A.  A.  Hill  and  F.  A.  Howard,  formerly  of 
the  Haverhill  Gazette,  and  Kelton  B.  Miller  and  Samuel  Dodge  of 
Pittsfield.  Of  the  Eagle  Publishing  Company,  then  incorporated, 
the  president  was  Mr.  Miller  and  the  secretary  and  treasurer  was 
Mr.  Howard. 

The  publication  of  a  daily  edition  of  the  Eagle,  with  tele- 
graphic news,  had  perhaps  been  contemplated  by  Mr.  Beach,  who 
at  all  events  perceived  that  Pittsfield  had  outgrown  the  sort  of 
country  weekly  which  his  newspaper  represented  and  had  bent 
effort  to  impart  to  it  something  of  a  more  cosmopolitan  tone. 
His  successor,  the  Eagle  Publishing  Company,  was  soon  able  to 
complete  the  transformation.  The  first  number  of  the  Berkshire 
Evening  Eagle  was  published  on  May  ninth,  1892.  It  was  a  four- 
page,  daily  paper,  and  subscribers  to  the  weekly  were  informed 
that  on  Wednesdays  they  would  be  supplied  with  an  eight-page 
edition  bearing  the  former  name  and  presenting,  as  theretofore, 
the  news  of  other  towns  in  the  county.  The  paper  remained 
politically  Republican. 

After  1892,  the  Eagle,  in  equipment  of  service,  kept  pace  ju- 
diciously with  the  rapid  growth  of  Pittsfield.  In  1893  its 
quarters  were  removed  from  West  Street  to  a  new  building 
erected  for  it  on  the  south  side  of  Cottage  Row,  and  on  July 
thirty-first  of  that  year  it  was  printed  in  a  six-page  form.  In 
1904  it  occupied  another  new  building  which  had  been  provided 
for  it,  and  for  the  Eagle  Printing  and  Binding  Company,  on  the 
north  side  of  Cottage  Row,  wherein  the  newspaper  has  been 
since  equipped  from  time  to  time  with  the  more  important  and 
improved  facilities  of  a  metropolitan  daily  and  has  been  so  de- 
veloped as  to  serve  the  community  to  great  and  steady  advan- 
tage.    In  1915  the  regular  edition  contained  eighteen  pages. 

Until  1897  the  duties  of  chief  editor  of  the  Evening  Eagle  were 
performed  by  S.  Chester  Lyon  and  since  that  year  they  have 
been  assumed  by  the  president  of  the  Eagle  Publishing  Company, 
Kelton  B.  Miller;  prominently  connected  with  the  editorial  staff 
have  been  Dennis  J.  Haylon  and  Joseph  Hollister. 


310  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

When  a  daily  edition  was  added  to  the  weekly  Eagle  in  1892, 
another  daily  newspaper  had  been  in  course  of  publication  in 
Pittsfield  for  twelve  years.  Nathaniel  C.  Fowler,  Jr.,  established 
the  Evening  Journal  in  Pittsfield  in  1880  and  issued  his  first  num- 
ber on  September  twenty-seventh,  antedating  any  daily  in 
Massachusetts  west  of  the  Connecticut.  Mr.  Fowler's  enter- 
prise, indeed,  may  be  said  to  have  antedated  its  opportunity,  for 
the  conservative  and  not  very  prosperous  town  of  1880  afforded 
a  hazardous  field  for  the  exploitation  of  a  daily  paper.  Never- 
theless, he  broke  ground  bravely.  The  original  Evening  Journal 
was  a  four  page  sheet,  with  seven  columns  to  the  page;  the 
price  was  three  cents  and  the  advertising  rate  was  six  dollars  a 
column.  Editorial  offices  and  press  room  were  in  the  building 
on  the  north  corner  of  Fenn  and  North  Streets. 

The  Journal  under  Mr.  Fowler  was  Republican  in  politics, 
but  it  declared  in  its  first  number  that  "it  will  endeavor  to  be 
fair  while  being  forcible,  so  that  no  one  can  charge  it  with  that 
growingly  dangerous  course,  unthinking  and  uncaring  partisan- 
ship." Newspaper  fashions  were  changing.  It  is  not  likely 
that  a  Pittsfield  paper  of  an  earlier  era  would  have  considered  it 
expedient  to  emphasize  a  declaration  of  that  sort. 

Mr.  Fowler  relinquished  the  Journal  in  less  than  a  year  after 
he  founded  it,  and  sold  it  to  a  small  stock  company  of  young  local 
Republicans,  who  obtained  the  editorial  services  of  I.  Chipman 
Smart.  Mr.  Smart,  in  later  years  the  brilliant  pastor  of  the 
South  Congregational  Church,  became  editor  of  the  Journal  on 
August  third,  1881,  and  his  talent  gave  distinction  to  the  leading 
articles  of  the  paper.  The  stock  company,  however,  sold  the 
Journal  in  1883  to  J.  M.  Whitman  and  Frank  D.  Mills,  who  took 
possession  on  March  twelfth  of  that  year  and  assumed  the  edi- 
torial direction.  They  published  also  for  a  few  months  a  periodi- 
cal called  the  Weekly  Gazette,  which  contained  a  department 
written  by  Miss  Anna  L.  Dawes.  On  November  twenty -fourth, 
1883,  the  suspension  of  the  Journal  was  announced.  The  sus- 
pension was  continued  for  a  month;  and  the  next  number  of  the 
Journal  was  issued  on  December  twenty-second,  under  the  editor- 
ship and  ownership  of  Joseph  E.  See. 

The  headquarters  of  the  Journal,  meanwhile,  had  been  re- 


NEWSPAPERS  311 

moved  in  February,  1883,  to  the  Burbank  building  on  the  west 
side  of  North  Street,  next  south  of  Central  Block;  in  1885  the 
editorial  rooms  were  transferred  to  the  latter  building.  There 
Mr.  See  caused  the  Journal  at  length  to  thrive.  He  owned  and 
edited  the  paper  for  six  years.  During  that  period  he  enlarged  it 
three  times,  although  he  retained  the  four-page  form;  and  he 
added  a  weekly  edition  in  1886.  Mr.  See's  good  results  with  the 
Journal  appear  to  have  been  attained  mainly  by  commendable  at- 
tention to  business  detail.  On  October  jfifteenth,  1889,  Mr,  See 
announced  that  he  had  sold  his  establishment  to  Ward  Lewis  of 
Great  Barrington. 

Mr.  Lewis  was  well-known  in  Berkshire  as  a  Democratic 
county  commissioner,  and  the  Journal  by  his  purchase  became  a 
Democratic  organ.  Its  new  editor  in  1889  was  the  proprietor's 
son,  J.  Ward  Lewis,  who  then  came  to  Pittsfield  from  Connecti- 
cut, where  he  had  served  on  the  Middletown  Herald.  The 
Journal  was  published  successfully  under  this  ownership  until 
1897.  The  Journal  Printing  Company  appears  as  the  proprietor 
in  1893,  but  of  that  corporation  Ward  Lewis  was  the  controlling 
owner.  The  paper  was  increased  in  size  to  six  pages  in  1891,  and 
its  price  was  reduced  to  two  cents  in  1889  and  to  one  cent  in 
1893,  but  was  fixed  again  at  two  cents  in  1897. 

The  Pittsfield  Journal  Company,  a  corporation  organized  in 
1897,  on  April  nineteenth  of  that  year  assumed  ownership  of  the 
newspaper.  This  company  was  in  efifect  a  consolidation  of  the 
Journal  Printing  Company  with  the  job  printing  establishment 
on  West  Street  owned  by  George  T.  Denny,  Mr.  Denny  was  the 
first  president,  and  was  succeeded  in  1907  by  Carey  S.  Hayward. 
Freeman  M.  Miller,  who  for  twelve  years  had  been  connected 
with  either  the  editorial  or  the  business  staff  of  the  Journal  Print- 
ing Company,  was  the  treasurer.  J.  Ward  Lewis,  having  served 
as  editor  of  the  Journal  since  October,  1889,  resigned  the  editor- 
ship in  February,  1898,  and  Freeman  M.  Miller  then  undertook 
the  direction  of  the  editorial  columns  and  S.  Chester  Lyon  that  of 
the  news  department.  Mr.  Lyon  withdrew  shortly  afterward  to 
the  Sun.  Carey  S.  Hayward,  who  had  been  the  Pittsfield  cor- 
respondent of  the  Springfield  Union,  became  city  editor  of  the 
Journal  in  1902.-,     The  Journal  moved  its  establishment  from 


312  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Central  Block  to  quarters  at  70  West  Street  in  1899,  and  there  it 
maintained  itself  until  January,  1916,  publishing  in  ordinary 
editions  eight  pages. 

A  third  daily  newspaper  was  so  actively  projected  in  Pittsfield 
in  1915  that  a  building  was  erected  especially  for  its  use  on  the 
north  side  of  Melville  Street.  The  proposed  paper,  however,  was 
never  published,  and  in  November,  1915,  the  Journal  announced 
that  the  Journal  Company  had  effected  an  absorption  of  the 
ownership  of  the  Melville  Street  concern,  that  the  reorganized 
corporation,  called  the  Pittsfield  Publishing  Company,  would 
issue  a  new  afternoon  publication  bearing  the  name  of  the  Daily 
News,  and  that  the  Evening  Jo2irnal  would  thereupon  be  discon- 
tinued. This  plan  was  duly  executed.  The  final  number  of  the 
Evening  Journal  was  issued  on  January  eighth,  1916,  and  the  first 
number  of  the  Daily  News,  a  sheet  of  eight  pages,  on  January 
tenth.  Of  the  new  corporation,  with  its  plant  and  editorial 
oflBces  in  the  Melville  Street  building,  the  president  was  Freeman 
M.  Miller,  who  was  also  managing  editor,  and  the  treasurer  was 
Charles  W.  Power. 

To  the  three  publications  existent  in  Pittsfield  in  1888  was 
added  a  fourth  in  the  summer  of  that  year,  when  William  H. 
Phillips,  formerly  of  the  Sun,  established  a  weekly  paper,  issued 
on  Saturdays  and  called  The  Berkshire  Hills.  It  endured  the 
slings  of  fortune  for  only  a  few  months;  and  its  plant  was  then 
acquired  by  Hiram  T.  Oatman  and  his  brother,  William  J.  Oat- 
man,  who  in  December,  1888,  stirred  the  town  not  a  little  by 
offering  to  the  community  a  Sunday  newspaper,  the  Sunday 
Morning  Call.  Under  the  Oatmans  the  Sunday  Morning  Call 
was  a  sheet  usually  of  twelve  pages  and  during  the  greater  part  of 
its  career  it  had  its  home  on  Cottage  Row.  Its  policy  was  bold, 
aggressive,  and  judged  often  to  be  sensational  by  the  Pittsfield 
of  its  time.  Its  managing  editor  for  its  first  five  years  was 
Hiram  T.  Oatman. 

Mr.  Oatman  was  born  in  Hartford,  New  York,  in  1844,  and 
died  at  Pittsfield,  December  twenty-seventh,  1901.  He  was  not 
only  an  instinctive  news-gatherer  of  the  most  assiduous  and 
faithful  industry,  but  also  a  capable  printer  and  an  expert  stenog- 
rapher, serving  the  Commonwealth  in  the  last-named  capacity  as 


NEWSPAPERS  313 

the  first  oflScial  court  reporter  in  Berkshire.  Unsparing  loyalty 
to  his  employment  was  his  conspicuous  trait;  afflicted  by  blind- 
ness in  his  later  years  he  clung  manfully  to  his  profession  of 
journalist.  Mr.  Oatman  was  closely  identified  with  Pittsfield 
newspaper  life  after  1874,  and  was  probably  best  known  as  the 
local  correspondent  of  the  Springfield  Republican. 

Shortly  after  the  retirement  of  Hiram  T.  Oatman  from  the 
active  editorship  of  the  Sunday  Morning  Call,  the  position  was 
filled  by  Walter  M.  Fernald,  who  came  to  the  Call  from  the 
Springfield  Union  and  left  it  after  ten  years  to  edit  the  Ansonia 
Sentinel  in  Connecticut.  William  J.  Oatman,  the  publisher  of 
the  CalU  in  1896  launched  a  daily  edition  christened  the  Morning 
Call.  This  remained  above  water  for  about  ten  months,  and 
then  sank  from  sight;  another  daily,  the  Evening  Times,  set 
afloat  by  Mr.  Oatman  in  1906,  had  a  voyage  even  less  pro- 
longed. In  September,  1906,  he  sold  his  newspaper  establish- 
ment to  the  firm  of  Hamer  and  Osborne. 

The  new  owners  continued  the  publication  of  the  Sunday 
Call,  and  with  some  fortitude  again  added  a  daily,  entitled  the 
Morning  Press,  to  the  output  of  the  plant.  Their  enterprise 
survived  for  five  months.  Both  the  Sunday  Morning  Call  and 
the  Morning  Press  were  then  discontinued,  in  1907,  and  the  me- 
chanical equipment  was  removed  from  the  city. 

The  Berkshire  Sunday  Record  began  publication  in  Pittsfield 
on  June  eighteenth,  1893.  An  eight-page  sheet  of  dignified  ap- 
pearance, it  was  in  make-up  and  in  the  general  nature  of  its  con- 
tents almost  a  replica  of  the  Sun,  perhaps  because  one  of  its  edi- 
tors, Henry  T.  Mills,  had  done  service  for  half  a  dozen  years 
under  James  Harding  on  the  older  paper.  The  owner  of  the 
Record  was  the  Record  Publishing  Company,  of  which  the  chief, 
if  not  the  sole,  components  were  Mr.  Mills  and  his  brother,  Frank 
D.  Mills,  the  latter  being  a  vivacious  newspaper  man  of  varied 
local  experience.  The  Record  was  not  a  financial  success  and  it 
expired  with  the  issue  of  March  twenty-sixth,  1896.  Its  files 
are  now  of  antiquarian  value  because  of  the  series  of  portraits 
of  Pittsfield  citizens  which  it  published.  Henry  T.  Mills,  who 
himself  wrote  most  of  the  contents  of  the  paper,  was  too  nicely 
literary,  it  may  have  been,  for  the  field  of  popular  journalism, 


314  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

and  the  Record  appears  to  have  lacked  a  definite  and  clean-cut 
editorial  policy  in  dealing  with  local  affairs,  to  which  it  exclu- 
sively devoted  itself. 

About  a  year  after  the  demise  of  the  Record,  another  weekly 
appeared,  the  Saturday  Blade.  It  was  edited  and  published  by 
H.  T.  Oatman  and  S.  Chester  Lyon,  and  its  career  was  limited  to 
four  months  of  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1897.  The  name  of 
the  Sunday  Morning  Call  was  revived  in  1912  by  Isaac  H.  Potter, 
who  applied  it  to  a  Sunday  paper  which  he  began  then  to  publish 
and  which  he  discontinued  in  1915,  Lenox  Life,  a  weekly  aiming 
to  be  of  interest  to  the  summer  visitors  in  Berkshire,  was  issued 
in  Pittsfield  for  a  few  seasons  commencing  in  1897  by  Earl  G. 
Baldwin.  It  was  succeeded  in  its  field  by  Berkshire  Resort 
Topics  in  1903,  and  this  periodical  was  afterwards  absorbed  by 
the  Sun. 

Two  salient  features  characterize  the  history  of  the  last  forty 
years  of  Pittsfield  newspapers.  One  of  them  is  the  elimination 
of  the  weekly,  unsupported  by  a  daily  edition.  The  Sun  in  its 
old  age  was  obviously  kept  alive  so  long  only  by  the  unique  talent 
and  personality  of  James  Harding;  the  Eagle  was  no  doubt 
saved  by  its  expansion  to  a  daily  paper;  of  the  various  independ- 
ent Sunday  journals  none  now  survives.  The  other  feature  is 
the  growth  of  the  notion  that  a  newspaper  is  more  properly  a 
servant  of  the  public  than  the  political  agent  of  one  man  or  of  a 
group  of  men.  The  two  Phineas  Aliens  and  their  immediate 
successors  in  the  editorship  of  the  Sun  had  worthy  ambitions  to 
be  elected  to  political  office,  and  they  worthily  attained  that  ob- 
ject; Henry  Chickering  of  the  Eagle  was  essentially  a  politician 
and  for  twenty  years  held  a  political  appointment  with  credit. 
But  by  these  facts  their  respective  newspapers  were  inevitably 
affected,  not  only  in  the  editorial  columns  but  in  the  news  de- 
partments. The  conduct  of  the  Pittsfield  press  gave  evidence 
of  a  broadening  change  in  this  respect  about  the  time  of  the  es- 
tablishment in  1880  of  the  Evening  Journal. 

The  products  of  Pittsfield  publishing  have  included  a  singular 
monthly  periodical,  The  Berkshire  Hills,  edited  and  first  issued 
in  1900  by  William  H.  Phillips,  who  used  for  it  the  name  given  to 
his  short-lived  weekly  of  1888.     The  second  Berkshire  Hills  was 


NEWSPAPERS  315 

published  by  Mr.  Phillips,  and  mostly  written  by  him,  from  1900 
until  1906;  after  October,  1904,  it  was  a  quarterly  publication. 
Its  purpose,  which  it  pleasantly  fulfilled,  was  the  preservation  of 
the  county's  traditions  and  ancient  gossip,  the  sort  of  harmless 
gossip,  often  delightfully  inaccurate,  which  used  to  be  familiar 
of  old  in  Berkshire  country  stores,  and  crossroad  blacksmith 
shops,  and  the  offices  of  village  lawyers. 

The  first  meeting  of  a  formal  character  of  the  county's  news- 
paper men  was  in  October,  1878,  when  a  dozen  of  them  regaled 
their  guests  and  themselves  with  a  dinner  in  Pittsfield,  listened 
to  speeches  of  humorous  advice  from  Francis  W.  Rockwell  and 
William  R.  Plunkett,  and  read  letters  of  regret  for  non-attendance 
from  the  President  of  the  United  States  and  other  dignitaries. 
As  a  result  of  this  dinner  appears  to  have  been  formed  a  nebulous 
Press  Club,  but  for  long  periods  its  activities  were  wholly  invis- 
ible. The  city's  newspaper  workers  in  1909,  however,  formed  a 
social  organization  under  the  curious  title  of  the  Dope  Club, 
which  has  since  had  a  prosperous  career,  holding  regular  meetings 
of  mutual  benefit  and  occasionally  exhilirating  the  community 
by  novel  entertainments. 

Among  workers  for  the  local  press  in  Pittsfield  during  the  last 
half-century,  the  most  distinguished  writer  was  Joseph  E.  A. 
Smith.  He  was,  to  be  sure,  a  poet,  an  historian,  and  a  man  of 
letters,  rather  than  solely  a  journalist,  but  from  about  the  year 
1850  until  his  death  the  columns  of  Pittsfield's  newspapers  were 
enriched  by  his  labor  and  during  most  of  that  time  he  was  con- 
strained to  derive  a  livelihood  from  newspaper  employment. 
It  is  not  improper,  then,  to  conclude  this  chapter  with  an  account 
of  him  and  of  his  great  service  to  the  town  and  city. 

Joseph  Edward  Adams  Smith  was  born  at  Portsmouth,  New 
Hampshire,  February  fourth,  1822.  He  went  to  Bowdoin  Col- 
lege and  he  studied  law,  but  his  ambitions  both  of  an  academic 
and  a  legal  education  were  abandoned  because  of  ill  health. 
In  1847  his  father  was  engaged  in  building  iron  works  at  Lanes- 
borough,  and  in  1848  Mr.  Smith  the  elder  removed  his  family  to 
Pittsfield.  Thither  came  also  the  son  Joseph,  a  handsome, 
romantic  youth,  who  could  already  claim  to  be  a  professional 
author.     His  verses  had  been  printed  in  Boston  magazines  and 


316  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

his  lyrics  had  been  set  to  music  for  the  songbooks  of  that  era — 
those  "Vocal  Garlands"  and  "Wreaths  of  Melody",  whose  prim 
fragrance  enraptured  the  singing  schools  of  the  middle  century. 

The  spirit  of  the  hills  possessed  the  young  poet  immediately. 
He  began  at  once,  both  in  prose  and  verse,  to  write  about  Berk- 
shire for  his  Boston  editors.  In  1852  he  collected  many  of  these 
productions  in  a  volume  which  was  published  under  the  title  of 
"Taghconic,  the  Romance  and  Beauty  of  the  Hills".  Mr. 
Smith  adopted  as  its  author  the  pen  name  of  Godfrey  Greylock, 
with  which  he  customarily  signed  his  magazine  contributions. 
The  book  enjoyed  a  comfortable  sale  and  the  praise  of  dis- 
tinguished critics.  Godfrey  Greylock  became  the  laureate  of 
Berkshire.  The  literary  lights,  who  at  times  then  illuminated 
the  county,  welcomed  him  to  a  modest  place  in  their  constella- 
tion. Dr.  Holmes  extended  to  him  a  genial  right  hand  of  fellow- 
ship, the  formidable  Fanny  Kemble  patronized  him  majestically, 
and  with  the  novelist,  Herman  Melville,  he  formed  a  close  in- 
timacy. In  1854  Mr.  Smith  assumed  under  Henry  Chickering  the 
editorship  of  the  Berkshire  County  Eagle  and  held  it  until  1865. 
In  September,  1866,  he  began  to  write  his  "History  of  Pittsfield". 

The  work  owed  its  inception  to  a  speech  made  in  town 
meeting  by  Thomas  Allen,  and  the  town  in  August,  1866,  voted 
its  first  appropriation  for  the  cost  of  preparing  a  local  history, 
to  be  expended  by  a  committee  headed  by  Thomas  Colt.  To 
this  task,  under  the  general  direction  of  the  town's  committee, 
Mr.  Smith  devoted  nine  laborious  years.  His  first  volume  was 
published  in  1869,  his  second  in  1876,  In  Pittsfield  homes  the 
books  shall  always  be  his  honored  monument. 

The  "History  of  Pittsfield"  is,  of  course,  the  chief  product  of 
Mr.  Smith's  talent  and  industry,  but  he  made  valuable  historical 
and  biographical  contributions  to  many  works,  notably  to  the 
"History  of  Berkshire",  published  in  1885.  He  published  in 
Pittsfield  in  1895  a  little  volume  which  he  called  "Souvenir 
Verse  and  Story",  and  somewhat  earlier  a  brochure  of  Berkshire 
reminiscences  of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  entitled  "The  Poet 
Among  the  Hills".  His  pen  found  frequent  employment  in  the 
local  press,  because  of  his  peculiar  knowledge  of  local  men  and 
affairs.     On  October  twenty-ninth,  1896,  he  died  at  Pittsfield. 


NEWSPAPERS  317 

His  old  age  was  shadowed  by  care  and  poverty,  for  in  business 
affairs  he  was  an  infant,  and  he  was  at  the  last  a  somewhat  pa- 
thetic figure — bent,  gray-faced,  moving  absent-mindedly  through 
the  streets  with  a  little  basket  of  books  and  papers  on  his  trem- 
bling arm.  Everybody  in  Berkshire  knew  him  but  he  had  few 
intimates,  and  these  discovered  in  him  strange,  harmless  pecul- 
iarities of  social  and  religious  belief.  A  sweetly-tempered  and 
courteous  man,  he  could  be  excited  to  surprising  wrath  by  that 
which  he  judged  to  be  bigotry  or  injustice;  nevertheless  in  what 
he  wrote  there  was  never  harshness,  and  he  was  by  mental  habit 
a  searcher  for  the  best  in  humankind.  To  the  loveliness  of  na- 
ture he  responded  as  if  to  music,  and  in  his  last  years  he  retained 
for  it  the  passionate  affection  of  his  youth.  The  grateful  hills  of 
Berkshire  can  smile  upon  no  man's  grave  more  tenderly  than 
upon  his. 


CHAPTER  XXII 
CLUBS,  THEATERS  AND  HOTELS 

THE  tendency  toward  increased  organization,  characteristic 
of  American  life  during  the  later  years  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  was  remarkably  operative  in  Pittsfield.  The 
number  of  local  branches  of  secret  and  fraternal  orders,  for  ex- 
ample, was  multiplied  to  an  extent  out  of  proportion  to  the  gain 
in  population.  A  list  in  the  directory  of  1876  names  seven  socie- 
ties of  this  description  in  the  town;  a  corresponding  list  in  the  city 
directory  of  1915  enumerates  forty-six.  Several  of  the  fraternal 
orders,  and  the  Turn  Verein  Germania,  had  buildings  of  their 
own.  That  of  the  Pittsfield  lodge  of  Elks  was  opened  on  Union 
Street  in  1910.  On  South  Street  the  Masonic  Temple  was  built 
in  1912,  at  a  construction  cost  of  about  $50,000,  and  devoted  to 
the  uses  of  the  Masonic  fraternity.  The  Pittsfield  branch  of  the 
order  of  Eagles  dedicated  their  building  on  First  Street  in  1915. 
Having  indicated  briefly  the  growth  and  success  in  the  city 
of  secret  societies  which  are  component  parts  of  nation-wide,  or 
indeed  of  world-wide,  organizations,  this  book  cannot,  it  seems, 
with  propriety  attempt  to  deal  with  the  intimate  and  detailed 
history  of  their  local  development  and  activities.  Some  of  the 
city's  social  clubs,  however,  may  here  claim  notice. 

The  formation  of  the  Business  Men's  Association  was  prob- 
ably suggested  and  certainly  hastened  by  the  availability  in  1881 
of  good  rooms  in  the  then  newly-built  Central  Block  on  North 
Street,  opposite  the  Baptist  Church.  In  the  fall  of  that  year, 
preliminary  meetings  were  held,  and  ninety-nine  members  were 
obtained.  Formal  organization  was  effected  on  March  twenty- 
third,  1882,  four  connecting  rooms  having  been  hired  and  furnish- 
ed in  the  southeast  corner  of  the  second  floor  of  the  new  block. 
Games  of  any  character  were  interdicted;  and  it  otherwise  ap- 
pears that  the  founders  were  at  first  torn  in  their  minds  as  to 


CLUBS,  THEATERS  AND  HOTELS  319 

whether  their  establishment  was  that  of  a  club  or  of  a  more  sedate 
and  seriously  purposed  chamber  of  commerce.  The  club  notion 
prevailed,  not  altogether  without  difficulty.  The  diversions  of 
cards  and  billiards  were  officially  provided  in  1883,  and  thereafter 
three  rooms  were  added  to  the  quarters  of  the  association.  Its 
home  in  the  Central  Block  was  occupied  by  the  Business  Men's 
Association  for  fourteen  years. 

Early  in  1896  the  corporate  name  was  changed  to  "The  Park 
Club  of  Pittsfield,  Massachusetts",  and  in  May  of  the  same  year  a 
removal  was  made  to  the  block  on  the  corner  of  North  Street  and 
Park  Square,  then  of  recent  construction  by  the  Berkshire  County 
Savings  Bank.  There  the  club,  having  gained  greatly  in  mem- 
bership, occupied  the  whole  of  the  third  floor.  A  second  migra- 
tion was  accomplished  in  December,  1911,  when  the  club  dedi- 
cated its  present  rooms,  to  which  is  devoted  the  fifth  floor  of  the 
building  of  the  Berkshire  Life  Insurance  Company.  These 
rooms  were  designed  specially  for  club  purposes,  including  those 
of  a  restaurant,  and  there  the  club  was  for  the  first  time  in  its 
history  completely  equipped,  according  to  metropolitan  stand- 
ards.    The  membership  in  1915  was  about  400. 

The  presidents  of  the  organization,  which  has  represented 
Pittsfield  citizenship  more  broadly  and  for  a  longer  period  than 
any  similar  body,  have  been,  since  1882,  John  R.  Warriner, 
James  M.  Barker,  Francis  E.  Kernochan,  William  H.  Sloan, 
Edward  T.  Slocum,  Thomas  A.  Oman,  Frank  W.  Hinsdale, 
John  F.  Noxon,  Irving  D.  Ferrey,  Charles  H.  Wright,  George  W. 
Bailey,  Arthur  W.  Eaton,  Frank  E.  Peirson,  and  William  D. 
Wyman.  The  social  function  of  the  club  has  been  emphasized 
beyond  the  intention,  doubtless,  of  many  of  its  founders,  but  not 
by  any  means  to  the  exclusion  of  other  functions;  a  forum  is 
afforded  for  the  discussion  of  public  problems;  and  at  the  Wash- 
ington's Birthday  dinners  of  the  club,  initiated  in  1915,  dis- 
tinguished orators  have  taught  lessons  of  patriotic  duty. 

The  Country  Club  of  Pittsfield  was  formed  in  the  early 
spring  of  1897,  and  owed  its  inception  to  the  desire  of  several 
men  and  women  of  the  city  to  familiarize  themselves  with  the 
game  of  golf.  The  first  president  was  Dr.  Henry  Colt.  Land 
was  rented  sufficient  for  a  nine-hole  course  immediately  south- 


320  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

west  of  the  junction  of  Dawes  Avenue  and  Holmes  Road,  and 
there  the  club  was  opened  in  July,  1897,  a  small  cottage  having 
been  converted  to  the  uses  of  a  clubhouse.  The  club  had  so 
pleasant  an  effect  upon  social  life  that  considerable  expansion 
was  warranted.  In  1899  the  fortunate  purchase  was  made  by 
the  club  of  the  beautiful,  uplying,  tract  of  land  of  230  acres  on 
lower  South  Street,  then  known  as  the  Morewood  estate.  Upon 
this  land  stood,  nearly  as  originally  built  by  Henry  Van  Schaak  in 
1781,  the  historic  mansion  called  "Broadhall",  the  home  of  Elka- 
nah  Watson,  of  Thomas  Melville,  and  of  John  R.  Morewood, 
wherein,  while  it  was  utilized  as  a  summer  boarding  house, 
Henry  W.  Longfellow,  Nathaniel  Hawthorne  and  Herman  Mel- 
ville had  been  guests.  In  1900,  when  the  Country  Club  first 
occupied  Broadhall,  it  was  necessary  to  alter  the  house  only 
slightly;  but  subsequent  additions  have  greatly  enlarged  it. 
The  members  of  the  club  organized  an  incorporated  stock  com- 
pany for  the  purpose  of  acquiring  and  improving  the  house  and 
land. 

The  exceptional  possibilities  of  the  property  for  the  uses  of  a 
country  club  were  steadily  exploited.  Tennis  courts  and  a  base- 
ball diamond  were  laid  out;  and  in  1915  steps  were  taken  to 
change  the  golf  course  of  nine  holes  to  one  of  eighteen.  A  boat- 
house  and  a  bathhouse  were  placed  on  the  shore  of  the  lake. 
Roads  and  trails  were  cut  through  the  picturesque  woods.  Out- 
of-door  winter  sports  were  provided.  The  spacious  house,  with 
its  piazzas  from  which  the  fairest  of  views  lie  to  the  north  and 
east,  soon  became  a  favorite  center  of  recreation.  The  member- 
ship of  the  Country  Club  in  1915  was  425. 

The  Pittsfield  Boat  Club  was  organized  in  September,  1898,  and 
in  June  of  the  following  year  formally  opened  its  first  quarters,  a 
pavilion  which  had  been  built  by  a  previous  tenant  of  land  at 
the  Point  of  Pines,  on  the  southeastern  shore  of  Pontoosuc  Lake. 
The  club,  of  which  the  membership  in  its  first  year  was  more  than 
300,  was  incorporated  in  April,  1901.  Its  success  had  then  been 
so  firmly  established  that  a  new  clubhouse  was  erected  at  the 
Point  of  Pines,  in  the  summer  of  1901,  at  a  cost  of  about  $3,000; 
in  1915  $4,600  was  expended  upon  additions.  As  soon  as  the 
club  was  in  operation,  arrangements  were  made  for  the  con- 


CLUBS,  THEATERS  AND  HOTELS  321 

venient  keeping  of  private  launches,  canoes,  and  rowboats  of 
the  members,  and  the  nucleus  of  a  club  fleet  was  formed.  On 
an  August  evening  in  1899,  the  club  conducted  its  first  boat  pa- 
rade, with  the  accompaniment  of  fireworks  and  much  elaborate 
illumination. 

By  causing  Pontoosuc  Lake  to  be  more  attractive  to  the 
casual  visitor,  as  well  as  to  the  summer  resident  on  its  shores, 
the  Boat  Club  has  been  a  protective  factor  of  prime  importance, 
for  it  has  served  to  discourage  the  more  or  less  tawdry  places 
of  entertainment  which  have  threatened  at  times  to  disfigure 
the  lake's  natural  beauties.  Amid  these  beauties,  the  site  of 
the  clubhouse  was  admirably  chosen;  and  the  policy  of  the 
organization  has  been  so  developed  as  to  afford  to  its  numerous 
members  privileges  beyond  those  usually  afforded  by  clubs  formed 
solely  for  boating.  Frank  E.  Peirson  was  the  first  president, 
and  his  successors  have  been  H.  Neill  Wilson,  Henry  A.  Francis, 
Frank  W.  Brandow,  and  Charles  H.  Talbot. 

The  Pittsfield  Bicycle  Club,  the  descendant  of  the  Berkshire 
County  Wheelmen,  and  organized  in  1892  during  the  vogue  of  the 
bicycle,  maintained  enjoyable  clubrooms  on  North  Street  in  1915. 
Another  flourishing  association  of  young  men,  the  Shire  City 
Club,  occupied  quarters  in  the  building  of  the  Berkshire  Life 
Insurance  Company  after  1912. 

Founded  in  1869,  the  Monday  Evening  Club  survives  as  the 
dean  of  Pittsfield's  literary  societies,  meeting  for  the  reading  of 
papers  and  informal  discussion.  Among  the  twenty-one  original 
members  were  John  Todd,  Gen.  William  Francis  Bartlett, 
Henry  L.  Dawes,  and  Thomas  F.  Plunkett.  Although  the  mem- 
bership continued  to  be  somewhat  rigorously  restricted,  the 
Monday  Evening  Club  not  only  quickened  the  community's 
intellectual  life,  but  also  tended  quietly  to  preserve  a  spirit  of 
civic  patriotism,  and  contributed  toward  establishing  that  out- 
spoken, appreciative  acquaintance  with  one  another  which  char- 
acterized Pittsfield's  leading  men  in  the  days  of  the  smaller  town. 
The  V/ednesday  Morning  Club,  a  large  and  valuable  association 
of  Pittsfield  women,  began  its  course  in  1879.  The  president 
since  its  formation  has  been  Miss  Anna  L.  Dawes;  and  invita- 
tions to  lecture  before  it  have  been  accepted  by  many  of  the 
country's  notables. 


322  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

The  Pittsfield  Argus  of  March  twenty-seventh,  1828,  con* 
tained  the  following  advertisement:  "The  Young  Gentlemen 
of  Pittsfield  who  are  desirous  of  forming  themselves  into  a  Thes- 
pian Association  are  requested  to  meet  at  the  town  house  on  the 
evening  of  the  third  of  April  next".  It  is  unlikely  that  public 
theatrical  performances  resulted.  If  they  did,  we  may  be  fairly 
sure  that  they  were  not  presented  in  the  town  house.  Pittsfield's 
earliest  theater  was  doubtless  the  "long  room"  or  the  "assembly 
room"  in  one  of  the  taverns.  Strolling  players  began  to  give 
dramatic  entertainments  of  a  sort  in  western  New  England  soon 
after  1800;  and  John  Bernard,  the  vivacious  author  and  come- 
dian who  assumed  the  management  of  a  Boston  theater  in  1806, 
made  an  excursion  with  a  company  of  three  or  four  actors  in  the 
summer  of  1808  from  Boston  to  Saratoga,  gratifying  the  villagers 
in  his  path  with  a  taste  of  his  quality.  It  is  not  impossible  that 
he  tarried  a  night  in  Pittsfield,  although  his  reminiscences  do  not 
record  the  visit. 

After  the  dissolution  in  1817  of  the  Union  Church,  its  meeting 
house  on  South  Street  was  purchased  by  Lemuel  Pomeroy  and 
leased  by  him  for  divers  purposes,  sacred  and  profane.  Stage 
entertainments  were  given  there  occasionally;  and  it  is  of  record 
that  there  Rev.  John  Todd  was  moved  to  great  and  righteous 
wrath  one  evening  in  1844,  when  he  entered  the  hall  to  conduct 
a  prayer  meeting  and  found  the  platform  adorned  by  the  scenery 
and  wardrobe  of  "The  Reformed  Drunkard",  a  drama  in  course  of 
production  for  the  rest  of  the  week  by  a  traveling  company. 
West's  Hall,  on  the  third  floor  of  the  block  at  the  corner  of  North 
Street  and  Park  Square,  succeeded  the  South  Street  "lecture 
room"  in  1850  as  the  town's  resort  for  musical  and  theatrical  di- 
version, and  Burbank's  Hall  on  the  west  side  of  lower  North 
Street  was  similarly  utilized.  Adjoining  the  Burbank  House  on 
West  Street,  a  second  Burbank's  Hall  was  dedicated  on  January 
nineteenth,  1871.  This  hall  was  provided  with  a  permanent 
stage  and  scenery,  and  its  seating  capacity  was  about  1,000. 
The  entertainments  presented  there  were  diversified  in  character, 
ranging  in  one  season  from  a  performance  by  a  company  of  Indian 
scouts  to  readings  by  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  and  a  concert  by 
Mme.  Rudersdorff,  the  brilliant  and  eccentric  mother  of  Richard 


CLUBS,  THEATERS  AND  HOTELS  323 

Mansfield.  In  none  of  these  halls  was  the  equipment  for  dra- 
matic production  better  than  primitive. 

The  Academy  of  Music,  built  by  Cebra  Quackenbush  on  the 
east  side  of  North  Street  a  few  rods  south  of  the  railroad,  was 
dedicated  December  sixteenth,  1872.  Its  grandiose  title  was 
representative  of  a  period  in  Massachusetts  when  the  word 
"theater"  was  not  savory,  and  when  a  theater  was  deemed  to  be 
less  objectionable  under  the  name  of  a  museum,  a  melodeon,  or 
an  opera  house.  Mr.  Quackenbush's  brick  block  contained  six 
stores  on  the  street  level.  Above  them  were  the  stage  and  audi- 
torium. The  designer  was  Louis  Weissbein  of  Boston,  who 
planned  the  court  house,  the  jail,  and  the  Berkshire  Life  Insur- 
ance Company's  building,  and  who  fastened  the  mansard  roof 
upon  local  architecture  with  a  pertinacious  clutch.  The  corri- 
dors and  lobbies  of  the  Academy  of  Music  were  lavishly  spacious, 
although  the  number  of  corners  turned  by  the  broad  stairways 
was  somewhat  disquieting.  Nevertheless,  in  provision  for  the 
comfort  of  its  patrons,  in  completion  of  stage  equipment,  and  in 
lighting  and  decoration,  the  theater  was  not  excelled  by  any  es- 
tablishment of  the  kind  outside  the  larger  American  cities  at  the 
time  of  its  erection.  The  seating  capacity  was  announced  to  be 
1,200. 

The  opening  performance  was  that  of  the  play  "Leah,  the 
Forsaken",  presented  by  a  company  which  remained  for  a  week 
and  was  led  by  Maude  St.  Leone,  otherwise  not  now  discoverably 
known  to  fame.  On  that  occasion,  she  read  a  rhymed  dedica- 
tory address  from  the  pen  of  Joseph  E.  A.  Smith,  concluding: 

"Lapped  in  soft  luxuries,  'neath  its  gilded  dome. 
Through  the  bright  portals  of  its  stage  shall  come 
To  you  the  changeful  drama's  glittering  train. 
The  Houri's  dance,  the  Songstress'  thrilling  strain." 

The  "Houri's  dance"  was  at  once  sufficiently  in  evidence, 
for  no  fewer  than  nine  performances  of  "The  Black  Crook" 
edified  the  patrons  of  the  theater  during  the  Academy's  first  season. 

The  Academy  of  Music  was  seldom  financially  profitable  to 
its  owner  or  lessees,  and  the  "soft  luxuries",  with  which  its 
laureate  had  endowed  it,  softened  in  time  beyond  the  point  of 
perceptibility.     Nevertheless,  the  Academy  contributed  in  gen- 


324  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

erous  measure  to  the  wholesome  enjoyment  of  the  life  of  the 
town.  During  the  first  fifteen  years  or  so  of  its  existence,  almost 
every  actor  of  eminence  in  the  country  played  there  at  least  once, 
with  the  curious  exception  of  Edwin  Booth — curious  because  Mr. 
Booth  was  a  good  friend  of  Berkshire  and  a  not  infrequent  visitor 
in  a  Pittsfield  household.  Of  the  theater  in  its  earlier  years,  the 
community  was  with  reason  proud.  Practical  testimony  of  this 
was  given  when  a  gale  blew  in  the  north  wall  of  the  Academy,  in 
1877.  A  subscription  paper  was  circulated  for  the  benefit  of  the 
proprietors,  and  local  amateur  actors  arranged  a  benefit  enter- 
tainment, for  which  Col.  Walter  Cutting,  John  M.  Ready,  and 
others  presented  themselves  in  "Betsey  Baker"  and  "Paddy,  the 
Piper". 

It  is  as  the  scene  of  the  elaborate  balls  of  the  volunteer  fire 
companies,  of  public  meetings,  political  rallies,  high  school  gradu- 
ations, that  the  Academy  of  Music  is  most  closely,  perhaps,  in- 
tertwined with  Pittsfield's  memories;  and  in  1891  the  Academy 
was  the  scene  of  the  most  important  event  in  Pittsfield's  civic 
history  in  the  past  forty  years — the  formal  dissolution  of  the 
ancient  town  government. 

The  final  dramatic  production  on  the  Academy's  stage  was 
made  on  December  twelfth,  1903.  The  name  of  the  piece  then 
presented,  "The  Struggle  for  Liberty",  was  not  without  a  certain 
appropriateness,  for  the  veteran  theater  had  been  for  several 
months  engaged  vigorously  in  a  struggle  of  its  own.  New 
ground  floor  playhouses  had  been  recently  opened  on  Summer 
Street  and  South  Street.  The  municipal  authorities  and  the 
Academy's  proprietor  had  annually  been  at  variance  over  the 
safeguarding  of  the  theater's  patrons  in  case  of  fire;  its  license 
had  been  suspended  in  1902,  while  alterations  were  in  progress; 
and  although  these  alterations  were  duly  effected,  general  con- 
fidence in  the  safety  of  the  auditorium  was  not  completely  re- 
stored. In  1904  the  stage  and  its  appurtenances  were  removed 
and  the  floor  of  the  auditorium  was  leveled.  The  Academy  was 
then  reopened  as  a  public  hall  and  a  theater  for  the  display  of 
moving  pictures,  entitled  "The  World  in  Motion".  For  a  short 
period,  beginning  in  1905,  the  armory  of  Company  F,  the  local 
company  of  state  militia,  was  there  established.     The  disastrous 


CLUBS,  THEATERS  AND  HOTELS  325 

fire  which  destroyed  the  building  in  January,  1912,  has  been  des- 
cribed elsewhere. 

Pittsfield's  first  ground  floor  theater  was  built  in  1898  by 
George  Burbank  on  the  south  side  of  Summer  Street,  a  short 
distance  from  North  Street,  and  was  at  first  called  "The  Casino". 
The  floor  of  the  auditorium  was  not  pitched  and  the  Casino  was 
therefore  usable  otherwise  than  as  a  theater;  but  theatrical  per- 
formances of  merit  were  occasionally  given  there  until  1902. 
The  stage  was  then  dismantled  and  the  Casino  became  the  head- 
quarters of  the  fraternal  order  of  Eagles.  In  1906  the  hall  was 
refitted  as  a  theater,  with  a  sloping  floor,  a  permanent  stage,  and 
suitable  scenic  equipment,  and  under  the  name  of  "The  Em- 
pire" began  a  well-conducted  career  as  a  vaudeville  house,  where- 
in entertainments  were  offered  every  night.  This  policy  of  the 
Empire  was  altered  early  in  the  spring  of  1912,  when  the  manage- 
ment of  the  theater  organized  a  permanent  stock  company  of 
actors  and  produced  a  different  play  each  week;  and  this  was 
the  first  trial  of  a  dramatic  experiment  of  that  sort  in  the  city. 
In  1913  this  enterprise  was  abandoned,  the  theater  changed 
hands,  and,  having  been  rechristened  "The  Grand",  experienced 
a  variety  of  vicissitudes.  In  1915  it  was  a  moving  picture  es- 
tablishment. 

The  erection  of  the  Colonial  Theater  on  South  Street  was  not 
accomplished  by  Pittsfield  capital.  The  investors  were  John 
Sullivan  and  his  brothers  of  North  Adams,  and  the  architect  was 
Joseph  McA.  Vance  of  Pittsfield.  The  audience  assembled  there 
on  September  twenty-eighth,  1903,  to  witness  the  dedicatory 
performance — "Robin  Hood",  by  a  famous  operatic  company 
called  "The  Bostonians" — was  able  to  congratulate  the  com- 
munity upon  the  possession  of  a  handsome,  comfortable,  and 
modernly  equipped  playhouse.  The  Colonial  was  conducted  by 
its  first  owners  for  eight  years,  and  an  endeavor  was  made  to 
obtain  the  best  theatrical  attractions  available  for  smaller  cities; 
but  by  no  means  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  leaders  of  the  con- 
temporary American  stage  was  seen  at  the  Colonial  during  its 
earlier  days  as  was  seen  at  the  Academy  of  Music  twenty  or 
thirty  years  before.  Pittsfield,  of  course,  was  only  one  of 
hundreds  of  towns  and  cities  thus  to  be  deprived.     The  reason 


326  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

was  mainly,  perhaps,  the  enormous  commercial  and  numerical 
expansion  of  theaters  in  the  great  metropolitan  centers. 

In  December,  1911,  the  Messrs.  Sullivan  sold  the  Colonial 
to  the  Pittsfield  Theater  Company,  a  corporation  of  which  the 
capital  stock  was  held  by  about  fifty  local  shareholders.  These 
owners  had  no  radical  ideas  concerning  the  conduct  of  a  theater; 
but  a  circular  letter,  addressed  by  the  executive  committee  to 
hundreds  of  prominent  actors  and  dramatic  critics  and  asking 
for  their  advice,  aroused  widely  published  comment;  and  soon 
the  company's  directorate,  to  its  surprise  and  perhaps  to  its  dis- 
may, found  itself  credited  with  an  ambition  to  establish  a  mu- 
nicipal theater,  and  in  general  to  elevate  the  American  drama. 

The  Colonial,  having 'been  decorated  anew  and  supplied 
with  new  stage  equipment,  was  reopened  on  May  twenty-eighth, 
1912.  Thereafter  a  resident  dramatic  company,  directed  by 
William  Parke,  occupied  its  stage  practically  every  night  until 
the  summer  of  1913.  The  plays,  changed  each  week,  included 
some  of  the  comedies  of  Shakespeare  and  Sheridan,  and  some  of 
those  of  such  modern  authors  as  Pinero  and  Bernard  Shaw. 
Local  interest  in  acted  drama  was  greatly  stimulated.  But  the 
undertaking,  despite  artistic  supervision,  laborious  effort,  and 
the  co-operation  of  many  citizens,  did  not  support  itself.  Mr. 
Parke  withdrew,  and  the  summer  season  of  1913  was  completed 
by  a  stock  company  under  another  management. 

Stock  companies  were  seen  at  the  Colonial  also  during  the 
summers  of  1914  and  1915,  while  in  the  intervening  winter  the 
theater  was  devoted  to  moving  pictures  and  traveling  organiza- 
tions. In  the  early  autumn  of  the  latter  year,  the  Colonial  was 
sold  to  the  Goldstein  Brothers  Amusement  Company,  of  Spring- 
field, Massachusetts,  by  the  Pittsfield  Theater  Company,  upon 
whose  boards  of  directors  had  served  William  H.  Eaton,  Charles 
W.  Wilson,  Luke  J.  Minahan,  Daniel  England,  Charles  W. 
Power,  Edward  Boltwood,  Joseph  McA.  Vance,  F.  W.  Dutton, 
Edward  A.  Jones,  and  Franklin  Weston. 

The  tenancies  of  the  Colonial's  stage  by  the  different  stock 
companies  of  actors  who  occupied  it,  beginning  in  1912,  were 
productive  not  only  of  generally  adequate  and  often  excellent 
theatrical  entertainment  at  reasonable  prices.      Another  effect 


CLUBS,  THEATERS  AND  HOTELS  327 

is  believed  to  have  been  to  form  a  sort  of  concept  in  the 
popular  mind  of  the  possibilities,  at  least,  of  a  theater  for  the 
acted  drama  which  might  constitute  a  rational  share  of  the  ordi- 
nary social  life  of  the  community.  This  is  not,  of  course,  to  say 
that  the  brief  control  of  the  Colonial  by  a  local  corporation  pro- 
vided such  a  theater  or  anything  very  closely  approaching  one. 
It  is  likely,  however,  that  many  Pittsfield  people,  whose  mental 
attitude  toward  all  theaters  had  become  one  of  indifference  or 
suspicion,  began  between  1912  and  1915  to  regard  the  activities 
of  a  playhouse  with  an  interest  more  friendly,  appreciative,  and 
discriminating. 

The  Majestic  Theater  was  built  on  the  east  side  of  North 
Street  by  the  Messrs.  Sullivan,  who  had  erected  the  Colonial, 
and  it  was  opened  November  twenty-third,  1910.  The  architect 
was  Joseph  McA.  Vance  of  Pittsfield.  On  the  opening  night  a 
play  called  "The  Deserters"  was  presented  by  a  company  of 
which  Helen  Ware  was  the  leader;  but  the  Majestic  has  since 
been  devoted  to  vaudeville  entertainment  and  moving  pictures. 
A  similar  policy  was  followed  by  the  Union  Square  Theater,  built 
on  Union  Street  by  John  F.  Cooney  of  Pittsfield  and  opened  in 
1912.  The  vogue  of  moving  pictures,  indeed,  was  as  popular 
during  this  period  in  Pittsfield  as  everywhere  in  the  country; 
and,  besides  those  which  have  been  named,  several  other  moving 
picture  establishments  on  North  Street  and  on  Tyler  Street  were 
patronized. 

It  is  quite  apparent  that  for  several  years  following  1876  the 
quality  of  Pittsfield's  hotel  accommodation  was  not  satisfactory 
to  the  townspeople,  but  several  attempts  to  organize  a  local  cor- 
poration to  build  a  new  hotel  resulted  in  nothing  but  a  tangle  of 
discussion.  The  principal  hotels  in  town  were  the  American 
House,  the  Burbank  Hotel  on  West  Street  near  the  railroad  sta- 
tion, and  the  Berkshire  House  on  Summer  Street.  Of  these 
buildings,  all  of  which  were  wooden,  the  oldest  was  the  American 
House.  The  American  House  had  been  purchased  in  1865  by 
Cebra  Quackenbush  and  personally  conducted  by  him  until  1876. 
Mr.  Quackenbush  in  that  year  removed  his  residence  from  Pitts- 
field and  rented  the  hotel  to  various  landlords,  including  George 
H.  Gale,  A.  A.  Jones,  N.  H.  Peakes,  William  St.  Lawrence,  and 


328  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

finally  in  1889  to  the  present  successful  lessees,  Arthur  W.  Plumb 
and  George  W.  Clark,  the  house  having  been  enlarged  in  1888. 
The  wooden  portion  on  North  Street  was  replaced  in  1899  by  the 
New  American  House  of  today,  a  substantial  structure  of  brick, 
which  was  remodeled  by  Mr.  Quackenbush  in  1911  and  so  im- 
proved in  equipment  as  to  be  adequate  to  the  demands  of  modern 
hotel-keeping. 

Cebra  Quackenbush  was  born  at  Hoosick,  New  York,  in  1838 
and  died  on  February  sixteenth,  1914.  His  association  with 
Pittsfield  was  useful  to  it,  for  he  was  a  man  of  a  pushing,  service- 
able sort,  and  when  he  built  the  Academy  of  Music  and  the  New 
American  House  he  added  to  the  public  advantages  of  town  and 
city.  After  leaving  Pittsfield  in  1876,  he  assumed  the  manage- 
ment for  a  long  period  of  Stanwix  Hall,  a  hotel  in  Albany.  It 
appeared,  however,  that  he  retained  his  sentimental,  as  well  as 
his  proprietary,  interest  in  his  Pittsfield  enterprises,  and  he  con- 
tinued to  be  a  familiar  and  popular  figure  locally,  although  no 
longer  a  resident. 

The  Burbank  Hotel  on  the  south  side  of  West  Street,  near 
the  railroad,  was  opened  in  1871  and  razed  in  1911.  Until  his 
death,  in  1887,  the  hotel  was  conducted  by  its  builder  and  owner, 
Abraham  Burbank,  with  the  assistance  of  his  sons,  of  whom 
Roland  E.  Burbank  was  the  acting  manager.  The  latter  so 
served  after  his  father's  death,  as  did  also  T.  L.  Doyle,  Ellsworth 
Bowers,  W.  P.  F.  Meserve,  and  John  Quaid.  The  last  proprietor 
and  landlord  of  the  Burbank  Hotel  was  Henry  Hay,  who  under- 
took the  management  of  the  hotel  in  1904  and  finally  closed  its 
doors  in  1910.  The  house  in  its  halcyon  days  was  familiar  to  the 
traveler  by  rail,  both  because  of  its  convenient  location  and  be- 
cause of  the  faithful  and  unforgettable  voice  which  for  many 
years  directed  his  attention  across  the  way  from  the  station  plat- 
form. 

The  Berkshire  House  on  the  south  side  of  Summer  Street, 
and  not  to  be  confused  with  the  historic  hotel  of  the  same  name 
which  stood  until  1868  on  the  corner  of  North  and  West  Streets, 
was  originally  the  dwelling  house  of  Parker  L.  Hall,  whose  estate 
Abraham  Burbank  purchased  in  1860.  Subsequently  he  en- 
larged  the   dwelling   and   opened   it   as   the   Berkshire   House. 


CLUBS,  THEATERS  AND  HOTELS  329 

Some  of  its  landlords,  after  1876,  were  H.  S.  Munson,  W.  W. 
Perry,  R.  McKinney,  and  John  Butterworth.  The  building  was 
demolished  preparatory  to  the  erection  by  George  Burbank  in 
1898  of  the  Casino,  now  the  Grand  Theater,  and  of  the  New 
Burbank  House,  which  in  1902  became  the  Norwood  Hotel. 
The  Berkshire  House  and  its  successors  were  hotels  of  which  the 
policies  were  based  on  a  schedule  of  moderate  prices.  There 
has  seldom  been  any  dearth  of  these  in  Pittsfield,  but  an  attempt 
to  inventory  them  would  be  a  staggering  task.  The  most  con- 
spicuous example,  perhaps,  has  been  the  present  Kenney  Hotel, 
opened  on  the  west  side  of  upper  North  Street  in  1905,  and 
which  was  a  development  from  a  modest  restaurant  called  the 
Arlington. 

The  desirability  to  the  town  of  a  hotel  adapted  specially  to 
the  accommodation  of  summer  visitors  was  emphasized  con- 
stantly for  several  years  after  1876  by  those  interested  in  Pitts- 
field's  welfare.  Both  the  American  House  and  the  Burbank 
Hotel  were  conducted  primarily  to  meet  the  needs  of  another 
sort  of  patronage,  nor  were  the  pleasant  boarding  houses  at 
Springside  of  Mrs.  Tetley  and  on  South  Street  of  Mrs.  Viner  and 
of  Mrs.  Backus  quite  adequate  to  the  demand.  The  school 
buildings  at  Maplewood,  in  some  seasons  utilized  for  this  pur- 
pose, had  fallen  into  a  state  of  dreary  disrepair,  from  which  their 
owners  seemed  unable  or  unwilling  to  extricate  them. 

It  was  under  these  circumstances,  in  1887,  that  Arthur  W. 
Plumb  of  Stockbridge  became  lessee  of  the  Maplewood  buildings, 
and,  in  1889,  purchased  the  property  from  Oberlin  College.  Mr. 
Plumb's  skilled  and  zealous  efforts  soon  supplied  the  town  with 
that  sort  of  a  summer  hotel  which  Pittsfield  had  so  long  and  detri- 
mentally lacked.  By  degrees  the  veteran  school  buildings  were 
in  effect  reconstructed;  capacious  additions  were  made  to  them. 
Their  graceful  environment  was  protected  and  improved.  Soon 
the  city  possessed  the  advantage  of  a  uniquely  attractive  resort 
for  summer  guests,  which  in  1915  is  still  under  the  same  careful 
and  progressive  management. 

The  Hotel  Wendell,  opened  at  the  corner  of  South  and  West 
Streets  in  the  autumn  of  1898,  was  the  most  pretentious  hotel 
which  Pittsfield  had  seen  up  to  that  time,  and  was,  indeed,  more 


330  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

pretentious  than  the  size  and  character  of  the  city  then  apparent- 
ly warranted.  It  was  built  and  originally  owned  by  Samuel  W. 
Bowerman,  a  son  of  the  distinguished  local  lawyer  bearing  the 
same  name,  and  its  architect  was  H.  Neill  Wilson  of  Pittsfield. 
The  first  management,  that  of  a  corporation  called  John  P. 
Doyle  and  Company,  in  which  Mr.  Bowerman  was  heavily  con- 
cerned, endured  for  about  six  months,  and  culminated  in  financial 
disaster.  In  1899  Messrs.  Plumb  and  Clark  of  the  American 
House  rented  the  Wendell  and  undertook  its  direction,  the  New 
American  House  being  in  that  year  in  course  of  construction. 
The  firm  of  Hamilton  and  Cunningham  assumed  the  lease  of  the 
Wendell  in  1900,  and,  the  latter  partner  soon  thereafter  retiring, 
Mr.  Hamilton  conducted  the  hotel  until  1905,  when  the  tenancy 
of  Luke  J.  Minahan  commenced.  Under  that  meritorious  man- 
agement, the  Wendell  was  actively  successful,  and  in  1910  the 
hotel  and  a  large  amount  of  adjacent  real  estate  were  purchased 
by  the  Wendell  Hotel  Company,  a  corporation  of  which  the  stock 
was  in  Mr.  Minahan's  control  and  which  conducted  the  hotel 
after  his  untimely  death. 

Luke  J.  Minahan  was  a  resident  of  Pittsfield  for  only  eight 
years,  but  even  in  that  brief  period  his  pecuUarly  restless,  opti- 
mistic energy  found  many  opportunities  to  stimulate  the  general 
activity  of  the  city  and  to  cause  its  name  to  become  known  more 
widely  and  favorably.  He  was  born  in  Troy,  New  York,  in  1870 
and  he  died  at  Pittsfield,  April  seventeenth,  1913.  He  had  quick, 
broad  vision,  brisk  determination,  large  ideas,  cheerful  courage. 
His  enthusiasms  were  showy  and  to  the  staidly  minded  often 
amusing,  but  they  were  none  the  less  genuine,  while  his  warm 
kindliness  of  heart  made  for  him  countless  friends;  and  the 
success  that  he  achieved  with  the  Wendell,  to  which  he  devoted 
his  energies  without  respite,  contributed  substantially  to  the 
prosperity  of  Pittsfield. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 
PROMINENT  CITIZENS 

IT  has  been  found  advisable  to  include  biographical  mention 
of  certain  influential  citizens  in  previous  chapters.  The  ob- 
ject of  this  chapter  is  to  present  brief  biographies  of  other 
notable  Pittsfield  men,  who  died  between  1891  and  1916. 

A  record  of  the  public  services  of  John  C.  West  belongs  to  the 
annals  of  the  town  prior  to  1876,  although  he  lived  to  see  the 
rural  village  of  his  youth  become  a  city.  He  was  born  in  Wash- 
ington, Massachusetts,  in  1811.  His  father  was  Abel  West, 
who  was,  from  1817  to  1871,  a  farmer  on  West  Street.  John 
Chapman  West,  in  1839,  opened  a  general  store  on  the  corner  of 
North  Street  and  Park  Place,  and  continued  in  the  business  of 
merchant  there  for  many  years.  He  died  in  Pittsfield,  November 
eighth,  1893.  Mr.  West  was  a  factor  of  importance  in  the  organi- 
zation and  early  management  of  the  Pittsfield  National  Bank,  as 
well  as  of  the  Berkshire  Mutual  Fire  Insurance  Company,  and  was 
always  actively  concerned  in  the  affairs  of  the  First  Church.  Be- 
fore the  eyes  of  the  community,  however,  he  was  chiefly  con- 
spicuous in  the  character  of  a  selectman.  He  was,  indeed,  almost 
a  fixture  in  that  office,  holding  it  for  twenty-two  years  and  being 
for  nineteen  years  chairman  of  the  board,  until  he  declined  re- 
nomination  in  1875.  Thus  he  came  to  be  a  sort  of  incarnation 
of  the  town  government;  and,  in  theatrical  phrase,  he  looked  the 
part,  for  he  was  a  full-figured  man  of  both  authoritative  and 
benignant  presence.  The  attention  which  he  gave  to  town  af- 
fairs was  daily  and  particular,  nor  did  he  neglect,  upon  needful 
occasions,  to  check  public  disorder  with  his  own  formidable  arm. 

George  N.  Dutton  was  a  prominent  and  respected  North 
Street  merchant,  and  after  1875  the  treasurer  and  manager  of  the 
Pittsfield  Tack  Company,  He  was  born  in  1828  at  Newbury- 
port,  Massachusetts,  and  died  at  Pittsfield,  August  eighteenth, 


332  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

1891.  Mr.  Dutton  was  one  of  the  pioneer  Republicans  in  Pitts- 
field  in  the  ante-bellum  days,  and  represented  the  town  in  the 
state  legislature.  From  1863  until  his  death  he  was  an  especially 
zealous  and  devoted  deacon  of  the  First  Church. 

Born  in  Stockport,  New  York,  in  1824,  David  A.  Clary  came 
to  Pittsfield  to  work  as  an  apprentice  in  the  machine  shop  of 
Gordon  McKay,  and  in  1855  became  a  partner  in  the  concern, 
associated  with  Almiron  D.  Francis.  Mr.  Clary  retired  from 
active  business  in  1872.  He  was  a  quiet,  conservative  man  of 
excellent  judgment,  and  his  advice  was  valuable  to  several 
financial  institutions,  conspicuously  to  the  Pittsfield  National 
Bank,  as  well  as  to  public  and  private  enterprises.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  city's  first  board  of  aldermen,  and  he  died  in 
office,  April  second,  1891. 

Jar  vis  N.  Dunham,  a  man  of  force  in  local  affairs  under  the 
town  government,  was  born  in  the  Berkshire  village  of  Savoy, 
May  first,  1828,  and  died  at  Pittsfield,  December  second,  1891. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1856,  and  in  1862  made  Pittsfield 
his  home.  In  1866  he  became  connected  with  the  management 
of  the  Springfield  Fire  and  Marine  Insurance  Company,  and  was 
its  president  from  1880  until  his  death;  but  he  continued  to  be  a 
resident  of  Pittsfield,  was  three  times  elected  a  representative  of 
the  local  district  to  the  General  Court,  and  was  a  wise,  effective, 
and  eloquent  counsellor  at  the  town's  public  meetings.  During 
the  later  years  of  his  life,  Mr.  Dunham  was  a  member  of  the 
directorates  of  the  Agricultural  National  Bank,  the  Berkshire 
Life  Insurance  Company,  and  the  Boston  and  Albany  Railroad. 

The  most  valuable  officer  of  the  Berkshire  Agricultural  Society 
in  its  halcyon  days  was  Henry  M.  Peirson,  who  was  born  in 
Richmond,  Berkshire  County,  in  1825  and  came  to  Pittsfield 
about  1848.  He  was  a  dealer  in  hardware  on  North  Street  for 
almost  half  a  century,  in  partnership  for  a  part  of  that  period 
with  Dr.  Stephen  Reed  and  with  George  N.  Dutton.  The  store 
which  Mr.  Peirson  conducted  still  bears  his  name.  He  died  at 
Pittsfield,  May  seventh,  1894.  Mr.  Peirson  was  an  unassuming, 
conscientious,  high-principled  man,  upon  whom  his  associates  in 
any  undertaking  were  accustomed  to  rely  for  methodical  thor- 
oughness. His  long  service  as  a  deacon  was  of  memorable  assist- 
ance to  the  South  Congregational  Church. 


PROMINENT  CITIZENS  333 

Pittsfield's  oldest  physician,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  Feb- 
ruary ninth,  1895,  was  Charles  Bailey,  who  was  born  in  East 
Medway,  Massachusetts,  in  1821.  He  was  educated  at  Brown 
University,  and  studied  medicine  at  the  Berkshire  Medical  Col- 
lege in  Pittsfield.  From  the  latter  institution  he  was  graduated 
in  1843.  Six  years  later,  having  in  the  meantime  been  converted 
to  homeopathy,  he  returned  to  Pittsfield,  and  there  remained  in 
active  practice  until  he  died.  His  mind  was  alert  and  acquisi- 
tive, and  he  never  ceased  to  be  a  student;  nor  were  his  studies 
confined  to  his  profession.  Dr.  Bailey's  extended  and  observant 
travels  were  the  means  of  obtaining  for  Pittsfield  progressive 
ideas  of  various  sorts. 

Thomas  P.  Pingree,  who  was  born  in  Salem,  Massachusetts, 
in  1830,  came  to  Pittsfield  in  1853  to  study  in  the  law-ofiice  of 
Rockwell  and  Colt,  wherein  he  afterward  became  a  partner, 
having  been  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1855.  He  thus  had  the  dis- 
tinction of  being  in  intimate  association,  at  different  times, 
with  such  eminent  Pittsfield  lawyers  as  Julius  Rockwell,  James 
D.  Colt,  and  James  M.  Barker.  Mr.  Pingree  was  a  cultivated, 
aristocratic  man  of  wide  learning  and  exceptionally  pure  ideals. 
As  a  lawyer,  he  was  not  adaptable  to  changing  conditions,  and  he 
clung  proudly  and  immovably  to  the  professional  traditions  in 
which  he  had  been  schooled.  His  death  occurred  at  Pittsfield, 
February  ninth,  1895. 

John  E.  Merrill  was  born  in  1820  at  Pittsfield,  where  he  died, 
June  fourteenth,  1896.  He  was  a  grandson  of  Capt.  Hosea  Mer- 
rill of  the  Revolution,  and  until  1886  he  lived  on  the  farm  which 
had  been  cultivated  by  his  great-grandfather  in  the  eastern  part 
of  the  town  in  1775.  Mr.  Merrill  was  often  entrusted  by  the 
voters  of  Pittsfield  with  public  office  and  was  a  prominent  member 
of  the  Berkshire  Agricultural  Society. 

A  pleasant  type  of  the  old-time  village  lawyer  was  Lorenzo 
H.  Gamwell,  who  was  born  in  Washington,  Massachusetts,  in 
1821  and  died  at  Pittsfield,  November  fourth,  1896.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1848  and  practiced  law  for  many  years 
in  partnership  with  Samuel  W.  Bowerman.  Affable  and  con- 
scientious in  the  conduct  of  business,  he  was  elected  to  represent 
Pittsfield  in  the  General  Court,  and  was  a  respected  counsellor 
in  public  affairs  under  the  town  government. 


334  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

George  Y.  Learned,  a  brother  of  Edward  Learned,  was  born 
in  West  Troy,  New  York,  in  1827,  and  on  September  fourth,  1897, 
he  died  at  Pittsfield.  He  came  to  Pittsfield  first  in  1853,  and  was 
there  associated  with  his  brother's  manufacturing  enterprises,  of 
which  for  a  short  time  he  was  a  representative  in  New  York.  In 
Pittsfield  he  was  popular  in  the  fire  department,  and  one  of  the 
volunteer  companies  was  named  for  him.  Mr.  Learned  was 
prominent  in  town  politics  and  an  efficient  selectman  under  the 
town  government.  His  disposition  was  sanguine,  cheerful,  and 
sympathetic.  He  was  a  member  of  the  original  board  of  trustees 
of  the  Berkshire  Athenaeum,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  was  a 
city  auditor  of  unusual  competence. 

The  death,  on  January  twentieth,  1898,  of  William  J.  Coogan, 
deprived  Pittsfield  prematurely  of  a  valued  citizen.  The  son  of 
Owen  Coogan,  he  was  born  in  the  town  in  1850.  Mr.  Coogan 
was  appointed  postmaster  of  Pittsfield  in  1887;  and  was  again 
appointed  in  1895.  He  served  the  public  with  scrupulous  fidel- 
ity. His  nature  was  of  that  loyal  and  sunny  sort  which  makes 
many  friends;  and  his  influence  among  the  younger  Pittsfield  men 
of  his  time  was  beneficial  to  the  community. 

The  mercantile  success  of  Moses  England,  who  died  in  Pitts- 
field, December  twenty-fifth,  1898,  was  destined  to  have  an  im- 
portant effect  upon  the  business  life  of  the  city,  Mr.  England 
was  born  in  Bavaria  in  1830.  He  first  came  to  Pittsfield  in  1857; 
and  thereafter,  with  the  exception  of  two  years  from  1874  to 
1876,  he  was  a  Pittsfield  resident.  In  1886  he  retired  from  the 
dry  goods  business  which  he  established  on  North  Street,  and 
which  has  since  been  greatly  expanded  by  his  sons.  Mr.  England 
was  quiet,  earnest  and  home-loving,  and  he  won  the  respect  of  his 
Yankee  neighbors  at  a  time  when  the  village  of  Pittsfield  was  by 
no  means  cosmopolitan. 

Almiron  D.  Francis,  who  died  in  Pittsfield,  December  twelfth, 
1899,  was  born  in  the  town.  May  eleventh,  1807.  His  great- 
grandfather was  Captain  William  Francis,  a  member  of  the  first 
town  government  in  1761,  a  stalwart  officer  in  the  Revolution, 
and  the  respected  village  leader  of  the  "West  Part."  Mr.  Fran- 
cis from  1852  to  1865  conducted  the  machine  shop  established  by 
Gordon  McKay,  and  afterward  devoted  himself  to  real  estate 


PROMINENT  CITIZENS  335 

operations.  Kindly  and  reliable,  he  was  for  more  than  forty 
years  a  deacon  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  of  which  his  father 
had  been  one  of  the  founders.  Although  he  never  held  political 
office,  his  influence  in  public  affairs  was  valuable,  and  his  advice 
therein,  as  well  as  in  private  matters,  was  often  sought  by  his 
fellow  citizens. 

The  legal  talent  of  Andrew  J.  Waterman  obtained  for  him 
the  distinction  of  serving  the  public  for  more  than  thirty  suc- 
cessive years  as  register  of  probate,  as  district  attorney,  and  as 
attorney  general  of  the  Commonwealth.  He  was  born  in  North 
Adams,  June  twenty-third,  1825,  and  in  1854  was  admitted  to  the 
Berkshire  bar.  Having  become  register  of  probate  in  1855,  he 
retained  that  office  until  1881.  In  1872  he  removed  his  home  to 
Pittsfield,  the  newly  established  county  seat.  In  1880,  1883,  and 
1886  he  was  elected  district  attorney,  and  in  1887  was  chosen 
attorney  general  of  Massachusetts.  In  the  latter  high  position 
he  served  for  four  years.  Mr.  Waterman  died  on  October  fourth, 
1900.  He  was  a  hard  working  lawyer,  who  owed  his  success  to 
patient  labor  rather  than  to  aggressiveness,  and  who  faced  legal 
antagonists  and  difficulties  with  unruffled  calmness  rather  than 
with  showy  fervor;  long  experience  in  the  probate  office  had  im- 
parted to  him,  perhaps,  a  judicial,  rather  than  a  combative,  cast  of 
mind.  Before  a  jury,  or  on  the  public  platform,  he  spoke  with 
dignity  and  effect.  His  political  following  in  Pittsfield  was 
trustful  and  spirited,  and  he  was  the  Republican  nominee  for 
mayor  in  the  first  city  election  in  1890.  His  acquaintance  with 
the  people  of  Berkshire  was  unusually  large  and  intimate;  and 
his  plain  manner  of  living,  simple  enjoyments,  and  industrious 
habits  were  in  accord  with  the  best  of  the  county's  old-fashioned 
traditions. 

During  the  later  years  of  the  town,  the  most  consistently 
active  participant  in  town  meetings  was  Oliver  W.  Robbins,  who 
was  born  in  Pittsfield  in  1812  and  there  died,  July  seventeenth, 
1899.  He  was  a  farmer  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  town  until 
about  1853,  when  he  made  his  home  in  the  central  village.  In 
1869  he  established  a  shop  for  the  manufacture  of  shoes,  in  which 
he  was  soon  joined  by  Charles  W.  Kellogg  as  a  partner.  The 
Robbins  and  Kellogg  shoe  factory,  near  Silver  Lake,  was  one  of 


336  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

Pittsfield's  important  industries  for  a  considerable  period.  The 
development  of  real  estate  on  Jubilee  Hill  also  contributed  to  Mr. 
Robbin's  prosperity.  In  town  or  fire  district  meetings  he  was  a 
rugged  economist.  Often  the  voters  were  merely  amused  by  his 
protests,  but  sometimes  they  were  judiciously  heedful  of  them, 
and  sometimes  the  town  was  a  gainer  because  of  his  untiring, 
honest,  and  fearless  vigilance,  and  because  the  voters  were  atten- 
tive to  his  favorite  dictum — "Somebody  has  got  to  pay  for  these 
things."  Mr.  Robbins  represented  Pittsfield  in  the  lower  house 
of  the  General  Court,  and  in  his  old  age  was  elected  to  the  state 
senate. 

Another  figure  of  prominence  at  town  meetings,  although  he 
never  held  public  office,  was  William  Renne.  He  was  born  in 
Dalton  in  1809,  and  he  lived  in  Pittsfield  from  1830  until  his 
death,  March  tenth,  1901.  Mr.  Renne  patented  and  manufac- 
tured a  medicinal  remedy,  which  had  an  extensive  sale,  and  he 
invested  largely  in  local  real  estate,  A  public-spirited  and 
thoughtful  citizen  of  many  ideas,  he  was  the  leading  supporter 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  at  a  period  financially  critical 
in  its  history. 

Of  distinguished  Pittsfield  ancestry,  John  Allen  Root  was 
born  in  Pittsfield  in  1850,  and  there  died,  October  sixteenth,  1902. 
He  engaged  actively  in  local  politics,  and  represented  Pittsfield 
in  the  state  legislature.  For  many  years  he  was  clerk  and 
treasurer  of  St.  Stephen's  parish.  In  any  ofiice  he  was  pains- 
taking and  reliable,  and  his  popularity  was  especially  marked 
in  the  volunteer  fire  department  and  in  fraternal  orders. 

In  1903  Pittsfield  was  deeply  affected  by  the  death  of  her 
most  eminent  citizen,  Henry  L.  Dawes.  As  congressman  and 
senator,  he  had  represented  the  Commonwealth  for  thirty-six 
years  at  Washington.  The  governor,  formally  advising  the 
General  Court  of  the  death  of  Mr.  Dawes,  said  with  truth  that 
always  he  "exhibited  that  devotion  to  the  welfare  of  humanity 
and  that  persistency  in  championing  the  cause  of  the  weak 
which  illustrate  the  true  spirit  of  Massachusetts."  Henry 
Laurens  Dawes  was  born  in  Cummington,  Massachusetts,  Octo- 
ber thirtieth,  1816.  After  graduation  from  Yale  College  in 
1839,  he  studied  law  at  Greenfield,  Massachusetts,  and  was  ad- 


PROMINENT  CITIZENS  337 

mitted  to  the  Hampshire  County  bar  in  1842.  In  1844  he  was 
married  to  Miss  Electa  Sanderson  of  Ashfield.  He  practiced 
law  in  North  Adams  and.  beginning  in  1848,  he  was  sent  to  both 
branches  of  the  state  legislature.  In  1853  he  was  appointed  to 
be  district  attorney,  and  so  served  until  1857,  when  he  was 
elected  to  the  lower  house  of  Congress.  There  he  remained  for 
eighteen  successive  years,  and  in  1876  he  began  a  continuous 
service  of  the  same  duration  as  a  United  States  senator.  He 
had  made  his  home  in  Pittsfield  in  1864,  where  he  died,  February 
fifth,  1903. 

So  far  as  the  performance  of  his  public  duties  permitted,  he 
continued  his  legal  practice,  and  with  distinguished  success,  for 
he  was  a  learned  lawyer  and  a  forcible,  conscientious  advocate; 
and  he  was  invited  by  Governor  Claflin  and  again  by  Governor 
Washburn  to  a  place  on  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court 
of  Massachusetts.  But  the  capitol  at  Washington  was,  of 
course,  the  theater  of  his  most  important  activity.  The  retire- 
ment of  Mr.  Dawes  from  the  Senate  in  1893  marked  the  end  of  a 
period  of  uninterrupted  legislative  work  equaled  then  by  that  of 
no  other  living  American.  As  a  national  legislator,  he  had  faced 
the  gathering  storm  clouds  of  the  Civil  War  and  the  awful  tem- 
pest which  broke  from  them ;  he  had  grappled  with  the  desperate 
difficulties  of  reconstruction;  he  had  seen  the  population  of  the 
country  grow  from  twenty-two  to  seventy  millions;  he  had  voted 
upon  the  admission  of  sixteen  states  to  the  Union;  and  he  had 
taken  a  helpful  part  in  solving  the  complicated  problems  involved 
in  this  expansion.  His  circle  of  acquaintance  had  included  nine 
presidents — Buchanan,  Lincoln,  Johnson,  Grant,  Hayes,  Gar- 
field, Arthur,  Cleveland,  Harrison;  and  at  the  funeral  of  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  he  was  chosen  to  be  a  pall-bearer. 

For  thirty-six  years,  few  important  public  measures  had  been 
proposed  of  which  the  affirmation  or  defeat  in  Congress  had  not 
been  influenced  by  him,  but  the  remarkable  legislative  career  of 
Mr.  Dawes  can  be  described  only  briefly  in  these  pages.  In  the 
House  he  was  at  the  head  of  the  committee  on  elections  from 
1859  to  1869.  In  the  next  Congress  he  was  chairman  of  the 
committee  on  appropriations.  In  1871  his  leadership  of  the 
majority  in  the  House  was  formally  recognized  by  the  appoint- 


338  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

ment  to  be  chairman  of  the  committee  on  ways  and  means,  and 
in  that  position  of  high  responsibility  he  served  for  four  years. 
His  principal  work  in  the  Senate  was  at  the  head  of  the  committee 
on  Indian  affairs.  These  duties,  and  many  others,  were  per- 
formed with  tireless  industry  and  with  vigilant  devotion  to  the 
public  good. 

His  labors  in  behalf  of  the  Indians  won  for  him  perhaps  his 
greatest  distinction.  During  his  service  of  sixteen  years  as 
chairman  of  the  Senate's  committee  on  Indian  affairs,  he  pro- 
cured the  appropriation  of  nearly  $16,000,000  for  the  education 
of  Indians  and  for  the  establishment  of  about  eighty  Indian 
schools.  As  a  result  of  his  efforts,  a  law  was  passed  which  pro- 
vided a  free  and  secure  homestead  farm  for  every  Indian  who 
would  take  it,  with  a  title  deed  guaranteed  at  the  end  of  twenty- 
five  years.  Furthermore,  the  law  carried  with  it  full  rights  of 
citizenship  to  such  Indians  as  availed  themselves  of  its  offer. 
"Older  readers"  said  the  Springfield  Republican  in  1893,  "will 
remember  the  mark  which  he  (Mr.  Dawes)  made  in  the  popular 
branch  of  Congress,  and  will  be  disposed  to  insist  that  the  later 
work  should  not  be  permitted  to  overshadow  the  earlier.  Yet 
by  so  much  as  the  moral  is  greater  than  the  material,  valuable 
as  was  the  service  rendered  as  representative  in  the  business  in- 
terests of  the  nation  and  the  course  of  retrenchment  and  econ- 
omy, does  the  last  outweigh  the  first,  even  after  the  support 
given  to  the  cause  of  the  Union  be  reckoned  in." 

In  spite  of  his  national  prominence,  he  was  the  most  unpre- 
tentious of  men;  but  there  were  three  of  his  achievements,  he 
once  humorously  remarked,  which  he  wished  to  be  recorded  in 
his  epitaph — that  he  had  moved  the  first  appropriation  for  the 
weather  bureau,  the  first  for  the  fish  commission,  and  the  first 
for  filling  in  the  notorious  "old  canal"  at  Washington. 

He  possessed  little  of  the  art  of  elocution.  His  speech  per- 
suaded because  it  was  that  of  a  logical,  sensible,  earnest  man, 
who  had  mastered  his  subject  with  extraordinary  thoroughness. 
By  birth  a  farm  boy,  with  the  hard  work  of  a  farm  the  portion  of 
his  early  youth,  Mr.  Dawes  always  retained  habits  of  industry 
and  of  plain  living,  and  seemingly  an  indifference  to  the  ac- 
cumulation of  property,  except  as  the  means  of  culture  and  simple 


PROMINENT  CITIZENS  339 

comfort.  His  nature  was  domestic.  He  liked  his  neighbors  and 
he  craved  their  good  opinion,  and  to  young  people  he  was  par- 
ticularly kind.  In  Pittsfield  he  was  as  attentive  to  his  civic 
duties  as  he  was  in  Washington  to  the  mighty  concerns  of  the 
nation;  and  there  is  still  to  be  seen  a  record  book  of  the  Water 
Street  school  district,  kept  by  "H.  L.  Dawes,  Clerk",  while  he 
was  an  eminent  congressman. 

His  old  age,  spent  in  his  home  on  Elm  Street,  was  happy  and 
serene.  He  busied  himself  with  literary  work,  published  some 
magazine  articles  of  political  reminiscence,  and  delivered  a 
course  of  lectures  at  Dartmouth  College;  and  he  preserved  to  the 
last  his  interest  in  local  affairs,  especially  in  those  of  the  Berk- 
shire Athenaeum,  of  which  institution  he  was  one  of  the  original 
trustees  and  for  which  he  suggested  to  Thomas  Allen  the  erection 
of  the  present  building.  Tributes  of  respect  and  regret  from 
many  men  of  high  station,  including  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  were  elicited  by  his  death;  but  more  in  keeping  with  his 
temperament  seemed  the  testimony  of  his  own  townsfolk  to  the 
honor  and  affection  in  which  they  held  him. 

George  H.  Laflin,  born  in  Canton,  Connecticut,  in  1828, 
spent  the  years  of  his  early  manhood  in  Pittsfield,  whence  he 
removed  to  Chicago  in  1863.  After  1888,  however,  he  made 
Pittsfield  his  summer  home  and  was  a  liberal  contributor  to 
several  local  charitable  institutions,  conspicuously  to  the  House 
of  Mercy.  Mr.  Laflin  died  in  Pittsfield,  July  twenty-fourth, 
1904. 

The  removal  of  the  county  seat  to  Pittsfield  in  1868  caused 
several  of  the  county  officials  to  become  citizens  of  the  town, 
and  among  them  was  Henry  Walbridge  Taft,  who  had  then  been 
for  twelve  years  clerk  of  the  courts.  He  was  born  in  Sunderland, 
Massachusetts,  November  thirteenth,  1818.  At  the  age  of 
nineteen,  he  went  to  Lenox  to  edit  a  newspaper;  but  he  studied 
law  instead,  was  admitted  to  the  Berkshire  bar  in  1841,  and  in 
1856  was  appointed  clerk  of  the  courts  to  fill  the  unexpired  term 
of  Charles  Sedgwick.  Mr.  Taft  thereafter  was  continuously  re- 
elected to  that  office  until  he  declined  the  nomination  in  1896, 
having  served  for  forty  years.  The  date  of  his  death  was  Sep- 
tember twenty-second,  1904.     Mr.  Taft  remained  to  the  end  of 


340  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

his  days  a  legal  official  of  that  sort  which  many  are  fain  to  declare 
is  the  old  school.  His  respect  for  the  work,  the  ceremonial 
etiquette,  and  the  traditions  of  courts  of  law  was  profound; 
his  legal  scholarship  was  exceptional;  and  he  performed  his 
official  duties  both  with  exactness  and  with  singular  personal 
dignity.  He  was  long  an  officer  of  the  Berkshire  Athenaeum 
and  a  deacon  of  the  First  Church,  and  he  served  the  business 
community  in  such  positions  of  trust  as  the  presidency  of  the 
Third  National  Bank.  Of  a  sociable  and  mellow  nature,  he 
liked  to  tell  humorous  anecdotes  and  to  write  humorous  verses. 
Mr.  Taft  was  an  enthusiastic  antiquarian,  and  an  enlivening 
leader  of  the  Berkshire  Historical  and  Scientific  Society. 

Edward  D.  Jones  was  born  in  the  Berkshire  town  of  Otis  in 
1824,  and  died  at  Pittsfield,  December  thirtieth,  1904.  As 
early  as  1850,  when  he  was  a  resident  of  East  Lee,  Mr.  Jones 
was  a  well-known  manufacturer  of  paper  mill  machinery.  In 
1867  he  became  connected  with  the  machine  shop  then  conducted 
by  Clark  and  Russell  on  McKay  Street  in  Pittsfield;  and  the 
later  development  of  this  plant,  under  the  ownership  and  direc- 
tion of  Mr.  Jones  and  of  the  company  which  now  bears  his  name, 
was  a  notable  example  of  enterprise  and  business  sagacity. 

Of  unremitting  industry  and  application,  Mr.  Jones  allowed 
himself  few  avocations,  and  political  service  was  not  among 
them.  In  1887,  however,  he  was  elected  a  state  senator;  and 
he  was  a  member  of  the  city's  first  board  of  public  works,  so 
serving  for  eight  years.  He  was  peculiarly  well-adapted  for  the 
latter  office,  being  by  temperament  and  habit  a  doer.  The 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  enjoyed  the  advantage  of  his  sup- 
port. In  partnership  with  Solomon  N.  Russell,  he  placed  the 
town  under  obligations  to  him  by  improving  North  Street  by 
the  erection  of  Central  Block,  and  he  was  instrumental  in  en- 
couraging some  new  local  industries  of  no  little  importance  to  the 
general  welfare. 

It  was  only  ten  years  after  the  death  of  Judge  Colt  in  1881 
that  Pittsfield  was  again  honored  by  the  appointment  of  one  of 
its  citizens  to  the  bench  of  the  highest  legal  tribunal  in  the 
Commonwealth.  James  Madison  Barker  was  born  in  Barker- 
ville,  in  the  western  part  of  Pittsfield,  October  twenty-third. 


PROMINENT  CITIZENS  341 

1839.  His  father  was  John  V.  Barker.  In  1860  James  M. 
Barker  was  graduated  from  WilHams  College,  and  in  1863  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  the  county  of  Suffolk.  His  wife,  to 
whom  he  was  married  in  1864,  was  Miss  Helena  Whiting,  of 
Bath,  New  York.  Shortly  after  his  admission  to  the  bar,  he  be- 
came a  member  of  the  law  firm  of  Pingree  and  Barker,  which 
may  be  said  to  have  been  the  direct  descendant  of  the  partner- 
ship of  Rockwell  and  Colt;  he  represented  Pittsfield  in  the  state 
legislature;  and  he  was  a  particularly  efficient  clerk  of  the  town 
and  the  fire  district.  His  interest  in  local  municipal  government 
was  constant,  and  he  always  was  a  conscientious  and  influential 
participant  in  town  meetings. 

Having  been  in  1874  appointed  to  a  commission  for  revising 
the  statutes  of  Massachusetts,  he  both  enlarged  his  reputation 
for  legal  ability  and  cultivated  that  erudite  knowledge  of  statu- 
tory law  which  was  afterwards  of  essential  help  to  the  work  of 
the  judiciary  of  the  Commonwealth.  In  1882  he  was  appointed 
a  justice  of  the  Superior  Court.  To  the  bench  of  the  Supreme 
Judicial  Court  he  was  promoted  in  1891.  There  he  served  with 
honor  and  usefulness,  until  his  death  in  Boston,  October  second, 
1905. 

Judge  Barker  was  a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees  of  Wil- 
liams College,  an  incorporator,  and  a  trustee  for  more  than 
thirty  years,  of  the  Berkshire  Athenaeum,  and  an  officer  of  the 
Berkshire  Life  Insurance  Company  for  nearly  the  same  length 
of  time.  His  value  to  these  institutions,  and  to  many  others, 
was  that  of  a  calm  and  even-minded  counsellor,  neither  to  be 
easily  deceived  by  vain  optimism  nor  to  be  easily  discouraged 
by  difficulty.  His  bearing  was  distinguished,  and  his  counte- 
nance was  at  once  refined  and  forceful.  He  was  generously  en- 
dowed with  the  art  of  oratory,  and  from  the  platform  he  spoke 
with  both  manly  fire  and  pleasant  stateliness  of  diction  and  de- 
meanor. His  ideals  of  civic  duty  and  political  rectitude  had 
been  purely  conceived,  and  he  took  care  to  express  them  in 
words  dignified  as  well  as  convincing.  It  was  as  a  favorite  public 
speaker,  indeed,  that  he  was  best  known,  especially  in  his  later 
years,  to  Pittsfield  citizens. 

A  diligent  scholar  and  a  faithful  lover  of  books,  Judge  Barker 


342  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

was  no  less  a  lover  of  nature  and  of  life  in  the  open.  He  was 
fond  of  a  day  with  his  shotgun  or  his  fishing  rod,  and  of  the  com- 
panionship of  camp  and  hunting  lodge.  It  was  his  custom  to 
make  excursions  through  parts  of  New  England  seldom  seen  by 
the  casual  traveler,  and  there  to  gather  experiences  and  observa- 
tions of  rural  ways  and  quaint  character,  which  his  pen  would 
describe  charmingly  for  the  entertainment  of  his  friends.  For 
friendship  his  genius  was  rare,  and  the  lives  of  many  Pittsfield 
men  of  his  generation  were  warmed  and  brightened  by  it. 

William  A.  Whittlesey,  becoming  a  resident  of  Pittsfield  in 
1886,  exemplified  in  many  ways  the  cosmopolitan  spirit  which 
was  at  that  time  beginning  to  assert  itself  in  the  town.  He  was 
born  at  Danbury,  Connecticut,  February  twenty-first,  1849, 
and  was  educated  at  Marietta  College.  In  1874  he  was  married 
to  Miss  Caroline  Tilden,  a  niece  of  Samuel  J.  Tilden  of  New  York. 
Mr.  Whittlesey's  earlier  commercial  experience  was  gained  in 
Detroit  and  in  Wisconsin.  When  he  came  to  Berkshire  he  was 
in  the  prime  of  a  manhood  exceptionally  vigorous,  and  so  cir- 
cumstanced that  he  was  able  to  give  financial  support  to  his 
faith  in  Pittsfield  and  Pittsfield's  future. 

The  possibilities  of  the  industrial  use  of  electricity  were  not 
then  commonly  imagined.  Upon  the  imagination  of  Mr. 
Whittlesey,  however,  in  whom  the  dreamer  and  the  practical  man 
of  affairs  were  curiously  blended,  these  possibilities  laid  strong 
hold.  He  was  one  of  those  who  effected  a  fuller  development  of 
the  business  of  supplying  electrical  light  and  power  by  the 
amalgamation  in  1890  of  the  two  local  electrical  lighting  com- 
panies into  the  Pittsfield  Electric  Company.  For  the  new 
company  he  built,  as  his  own  venture,  a  central  station.  These 
transactions  brought  him  into  touch  with  William  Stanley;  and 
it  was  through  the  medium  of  Mr.  Whittlesey's  brisk  voice  that 
most  people  in  Pittsfield  first  heard  of  the  project  of  the  Stanley 
Electric  Manufacturing  Company.  Although  the  chief  en- 
deavors of  his  business  career  in  Pittsfield  were  devoted  to  for- 
warding the  interests  of  these  two  corporations,  Mr.  Whittlesey's 
public  spirit  caused  him  to  engage  in  several  other  useful  under- 
takings. 

In  1897  he  was  a  representative  from  Pittsfield  to  the  General 


PROMINENT  CITIZENS  343 

Court,  and  for  the  two  years  following  he  was  a  prominent  and 
valuable  member  of  the  Massachusetts  senate;  but  he  was  too 
mercurial,  perhaps,  to  be  a  politician  in  the  ordinary  and  limited 
meaning  of  the  word,  and  he  freed  himself  very  easily  from  the  ob- 
ligation of  party  ties  when  he  felt  that  his  party  was  wrong. 
Openly  impulsive,  possessing  a  handsome  and  commanding 
presence,  endowed  with  unusual  energy  of  mind  and  body,  he 
was  able  readily  to  impart  his  enthusiasms.  His  advocacy  of  a 
cause,  whether  in  business,  in  politics,  or  in  social  life,  meant 
immediate  action  of  some  sort.  Thus  by  nature  sensitive  and 
enthusiastic,  frank  and  impetuous,  Mr.  Whittlesey  was  so  con- 
stituted as  to  attract,  and  to  be  attracted  by,  the  companionship 
of  young  people.  It  may  be  doubted  if  he  was  more  proud  of 
any  of  his  achievements  than  he  was  of  the  fact  that  for  a  decade 
he  was  president  of  the  Pittsfield  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  and  that  he  was 
of  proved  value  to  the  association,  having  come  to  it  at  a  time 
of  some  travail  and  having  left  it  with  an  invigorated  membership 
and  a  home  of  its  own.  He  died  at  Pittsfield,  December  fifth, 
1906. 

Edgar  M.  Wood,  a  successful  lawyer  who  was  born  in  Ches- 
hire, Massachusetts,  in  1832  and  died  in  Pittsfield,  June  second, 
1906,  tried  more  cases,  it  is  believed,  than  any  other  Pittsfield, 
or  even  Massachusetts,  attorney  contemporary  with  him.  He 
was  educated  at  Williams  and  at  Union,  was  admitted  to  the 
Berkshire  bar  in  1859,  and  was  the  local  United  States  com- 
missioner from  1868  until  his  death.  Mr.  Wood  was  a  self- 
contained  man  of  rigorous  industry,  singleness  of  purpose,  and 
aggressive  force,  fond  both  of  the  give-and-take  clash  of  legal 
combat  and  of  the  quiet  of  his  home  and  his  library. 

One  of  the  city's  public  schools  was  named  appropriately 
for  Franklin  F.  Read,  who  served  as  a  member  of  the  school  com- 
mittee for  a  number  of  years.  He  was  born  in  Windsor  in  1827 
and  came  to  Pittsfield  with  his  father  in  1838.  Part  of  his 
youth  was  spent  in  California,  but  in  1853  he  was  established  as 
a  provision  merchant  in  Pittsfield,  and  there  spent  the  rest  of 
his  life.  He  was  prominent  in  town  affairs  and  as  an  administra- 
tor of  private  trusts.  Mr.  Read  died  on  December  thirty-first, 
1906. 


344  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

During  the  final  years  of  the  town  and  fire  district  govern- 
ments, Pittsfield  elected  few  public  servants  who  were  more 
energetic  and  competent  than  Frank  W.  Hinsdale.  He  was  born 
in  the  neighboring  town  of  Hinsdale  in  1826,  and  there,  in  1853, 
he  began  the  business  of  woolen  manufacturing,  making  his 
home,  however,  in  Pittsfield,  where  he  died,  October  third,  1906. 
He  was  president  of  the  Berkshire  Mutual  Fire  Insurance  Com- 
pany; and  in  the  course  of  his  experience  of  nearly  half  a  century 
as  a  Berkshire  manufacturer  he  acquired  a  peculiarly  intimate 
knowledge  of  men  and  affairs  throughout  the  county.  Mr. 
Hinsdale  was  a  companionable,  humorsome  man,  who  cherished 
anecdotes  of  Pittsfield  life  and  Pittsfield  characters  with  ap- 
preciative delight,  and  whose  likes  and  dislikes  were  strongly 
marked. 

The  career  at  the  Berkshire  bar  of  Marshall  Wilcox  was  out 
of  the  ordinary  because  of  its  duration  as  well  as  because  of  its 
distinction.  He  was  born  in  Stockbridge,  March  nineteenth, 
1821,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1847,  and  continued  in  the 
practice  of  the  law  until  his  death  at  Pittsfield,  October  four- 
teenth, 1906.  Having  been  graduated  from  Williams  College  in 
1844,  he  lived  in  Otis  and  in  Lee  before  he  became  a  resident  of 
Pittsfield  in  1871.  For  a  period  of  forty  years,  the  name  of  no 
Berkshire  attorney  appears  more  frequently  than  his  in  the  re- 
ports of  the  Commonwealth's  highest  court.  His  talent  and 
his  assiduity  were  inspired  by  a  respect  for  his  profession  which 
seemed  to  be  almost  reverence,  and  he  labored  in  it  with  a  whole- 
hearted zest  not  unlike  that  of  a  religious  devotee.  Acquired 
in  this  spirit,  his  legal  learning  was  profound  and  wide,  and  he 
utilized  it  with  faithful  integrity.  An  old-fashioned  New  Eng- 
lander,  Mr.  Wilcox  took  an  active  part  in  town  meetings,  and  his 
opinions  were  attentively  considered  by  the  voters  and  the  town 
officials.  His  demeanor  was  grave,  deliberate,  and  courtly; 
but  he  could  be  moved  to  vigorous  scorn,  in  public  and  in  private, 
by  insincerity,  pretension,  or  wastefulness,  and  he  could  express 
his  scorn  with  biting  sarcasm,  which  occasionally  employed  a 
vocabulary  humorously  at  variance  with  his  austere  aspect. 
Idlers  and  shirkers  he  regarded  with  disdain,  and  on  the  other 
hand  he  was  ready  with  kindly  help  and  encouragement  for  all, 


PROMINENT  CITIZENS  345 

and  especially  for  all  young  men,  who  labored  in  earnest  and  who 
respected  their  work. 

A  quiet,  but  active,  factor  of  assistance  in  local  business  and 
public  affairs  was  Charles  W.  Kellogg.  He  was  born  at  West 
Pittsfield,  October  eighth,  1847.  For  a  long  period  after  1870 
he  was  a  partner  of  Oliver  W.  Robbins  in  the  manufacture  of 
shoes,  and  he  was  prominent  in  organizing  the  Berkshire  Loan 
and  Trust  Company,  of  which  he  was  the  first  treasurer,  and  the 
president  at  the  time  of  his  death.  Mr.  Kellogg  was  a  member 
of  the  important  commission  which  began  the  construction  of 
the  city's  modern  system  of  sewers.  He  had  a  cultivated  mind, 
with  a  taste  for  research  and  statistical  information  of  all  sorts; 
and  he  was  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  Berkshire  Athenaeum.  He 
died  at  Pittsfield,  April  nineteenth,  1907. 

Charles  T.  Plunkett,  major  of  the  Forty-ninth  Massachusetts 
regiment  during  the  Civil  War,  was  born  in  Pittsfield  in  1839, 
and  died  there,  November  tenth,  1907,  having  spent  the  final 
fourteen  years  of  his  life  in  his  birthplace.  His  father  was 
Thomas  F.  Plunkett.  Major  Plunkett  was  a  placid,  unassuming, 
amiable  veteran  of  gigantic  stature,  who  seemed  to  have  literally 
no  enemies  in  the  city.  At  the  time  of  his  death  he  was  the 
probation  officer  attached  to  the  District  Court  of  Central 
Berkshire. 

Dr.  William  M.  Mercer,  a  beloved  physician  and  a  citizen  of 
extended  and  worthily  directed  influence,  practiced  his  profession 
in  Pittsfield  for  forty  years.  He  was  born  in  Kilkenny,  Ireland, 
in  1842,  and  came  to  this  country  in  1857.  The  circumstances 
of  his  boyhood  were  humble,  but  his  ambition  was  stalwart; 
and  he  resolutely  worked  his  way  through  the  Harvard  Medical 
School.  There  he  was  graduated  in  1866.  In  the  next  year  he 
began  practice  in  Pittsfield,  where  he  died,  June  tenth,  1908. 
He  had  a  high  ideal  of  his  vocation,  wherein  he  was  skilled 
and  charitable.  It  is  likely  that  for  a  long  period  his  patients 
outnumbered  those  of  any  other  Pittsfield  doctor.  His  support 
and  his  labor,  given  constantly  to  the  House  of  Mercy  hospital, 
were  of  essential  importance  to  the  growth  of  the  institution. 
Although  his  professional  toil  was  arduous.  Dr.  Mercer  otherw^ise 
served  Pittsfield  conspicuously.     For  thirty-four  years,  under 


346  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

the  town  and  city  governments,  he  was  a  faithful  member  of  the 
school  committee.  He  had  fought  hard  for  his  own  education; 
and  he  championed  earnestly  the  cause  of  the  public  schools  of 
Pittsfield.  That  cause  had  few  advocates  more  popular  and 
convincing.  As  a  trustee  of  the  Berkshire  Athenaeum,  he  was 
most  instrumental  in  bringing  home  to  the  people  of  the  town  a 
correct  understanding  of  the  mission  of  the  library.  Dr.  Mercer 
was  gentle-hearted,  sympathetic,  and  quietly  firm  in  his  con- 
victions.    He  was  a  devout  member  of  St.  Joseph's  Church. 

Franklin  W.  Russell,  the  youngest  son  of  Solomon  L.  Russell, 
was  born  in  Pittsfield  in  1841,  and  died  there,  November  seven- 
teenth, 1908.  From  1865  until  1895  he  was  a  resident  of  New 
York;  he  returned  to  Pittsfield  in  1895;  and  in  1899,  after  the 
death  of  his  brother,  Solomon  N.,  he  was  chosen  president  of  the 
S.  N.  and  C.  Russell  Manufacturing  Company.  Mr.  Russell 
served  as  a  member  of  Pittsfield's  board  of  aldermen  and  school 
committee,  and  he  was  elected  to  the  governor's  council  in  1906. 
He  was  an  energetic  man  of  strong  purpose  and  forcible  speech, 
who  found  joy  in  thorough  and  speedy  accomplishment  and  no 
satisfaction  in  compromises  or  halfway  measures.  The  Pilgrim 
Memorial  Church,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  and  the  Boys'  Club  were  in- 
debted to  him  for  especially  generous  help;  but  his  philanthropy 
and  his  public  spirit  were  catholic,  and  he  liberally  supported 
many  worthy  causes. 

John  H.  Manning,  born  in  Ellington,  Connecticut,  July 
twenty-third,  1846,  came  to  Pittsfield  with  his  parents  when  he 
was  ten  years  old.  His  business  was  that  of  a  druggist,  and  his 
thorough  knowledge  of  it  justified  his  appointment  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts pharmacy  commission.  In  1885,  however,  the  voters 
of  Berkshire  elected  him  a  county  commissioner,  and  thereafter 
he  devoted  himself  chiefly  to  public  works,  particularly  to  the 
construction  of  highways.  In  1900  he  was  appointed  by  the 
governor  to  the  state  highway  commission,  and  he  died  in  ofiice, 
June  second,  1909.  Mr.  Manning  was  both  a  careful  student 
and  a  vigorous  executive,  enthusiastic  in  investigation  as  he  was 
in  action.  He  was  a  bright,  attractive  talker.  His  popularity 
was  abundant,  and  he  held  the  office  of  county  commissioner  for 
twelve  years.     Ardently  patriotic,  he  delighted  in  the  study  of 


PROMINENT  CITIZENS  347 

American  history,  wherein  his  interest  was  not  merely  bookish; 
and  he  believed  heartily  in  the  preservation  of  the  ideals  of  our 
national  heroes  and  of  visible  memorials  of  their  deeds. 

A  conspicuous  part  in  town  politics  was  taken  by  Thomas 
A.  Oman,  who  made  his  home  in  Pittsfield  in  1872,  having  pre- 
viously to  that  year  been  a  store-keeper  in  Lee.  He  was  born 
in  Albany,  New  York,  in  1824,  and  he  died  in  Pittsfield,  March 
thirty-first,  1909.  Mr.  Oman  represented  Pittsfield  in  the  Gen- 
eral Court  and  was  chosen  one  of  the  town's  selectmen  in  1881, 
1882,  and  1884.  He  was  conservative  and  discreet,  and  inclined 
to  deem  improper  or  imprudent  that  which  was  foreign  to  his 
experience;  both  his  personal  likes  and  dislikes  were  strongly 
marked,  and  he  pertinaciously  retained  them.  In  his  pleasant 
old  age,  when  Pittsfield  had  outgrown  its  village  ways,  Mr. 
Oman's  village  ways  were  unchanged,  and  he  personified  a  certain 
type  of  old-fashioned  villager — methodical  and  placid,  contented 
with  the  neighborly  intercourse  of  old  friends,  proud  of  his  town, 
fond  of  local  reminiscence,  and  not  desirous  of  the  bustle  of  city 
life. 

Dr.  Walter  H.  Wentworth  was  born  in  Stockbridge,  in  1841, 
and  began  the  practice  of  medicine  in  Pittsfield  in  1869,  having 
been  graduated  from  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  in 
New  York  in  1863,  and  having  served  as  a  military  surgeon  dur- 
ing the  Civil  War.  On  December  seventh,  1910,  he  died  at 
Pittsfield.  Affectionately  esteemed  in  many  Pittsfield  house- 
holds for  forty  years.  Dr.  Wentworth  was  a  man  of  refined  and 
literary  tastes,  companionable,  stoutly  patriotic,  and  a  sincere 
appreciator  of  the  good  qualities  of  his  fellow  citizens.  He  de- 
lighted in  the  use  of  fowling  gun  and  fishing  rod;  and  the  beauty 
of  Berkshire's  hills  had  no  more  ardent  admirer. 

Another  well-known  physician  was  Dr.  Oscar  S.  Roberts, 
who  was  born  at  Whitingham,  Vermont,  in  1837,  and  first  came 
to  Pittsfield  in  1861,  for  the  purpose  of  attending  lectures  at  the 
Berkshire  Medical  College.  He  received  his  medical  degree, 
however,  from  the  University  of  Vermont  in  1864,  and  after 
practicing  his  profession  in  Belchertown  became  a  resident  of 
Pittsfield  in  1869  and  remained  there  until  his  death,  on  January 
fourth,  1911.     Dr.  Roberts  was  a  cheerful,  optimistic,  hospitable 


348  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

man  and  a  trusted  physician,  serving  the  town  efficiently  as  a 
member  of  the  board  of  health.  He  was  fond  of  books  and 
music;  one  of  his  less  important  traits  was  a  curious  liking  for 
novel  devices  of  various  sorts;  and  he  is  believed  to  have  been 
the  first  person  in  the  city  to  own  a  motor  car. 

The  active  connection  of  Robert  W.  Adam  with  the  Berkshire 
County  Savings  Bank  as  its  treasurer,  which  began  in  1865,  span- 
ned a  period  of  forty-six  years.  He  was  born,  September 
twenty-eighth,  1825,  in  North  Canaan,  Connecticut,  was  gradu- 
ated from  Williams  College  in  1845,  and  came  to  Pittsfield  in 
order  to  enroll  himself  on  the  roster  of  that  company  of  students 
in  the  law-office  of  Rockwell  and  Colt  from  which  the  Berkshire 
bar  was  so  importantly  recruited.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
in  1849,  and  began  practice  in  Pittsfield.  There,  in  1852,  he  was 
married  to  Miss  Sarah  P.  Brewster.  The  date  of  his  death  was 
June  eighteenth,  1911. 

Mr.  Adam  had  little  taste  for  public  life,  but  he  served  the 
town  as  a  representative  to  the  General  Court,  and  the  city  as 
president  of  the  board  of  aldermen.  His  services  to  the  people  of 
Pittsfield  lay  chiefly,  however,  in  his  accurate  management  of 
financial  trusts,  for  his  exactness  was  thorough  and  imperturb- 
able. He  was  identified,  more  or  less  closely,  with  several  busi- 
ness interests  of  local  importance,  such  as  the  Agricultural 
National  Bank,  the  Berkshire  Mutual  Fire  Insurance  Company, 
and  the  Pittsfield  Coal  Gas  Company;  but  it  was  to  the  Berk- 
shire County  Savings  Bank  that  he  daily  devoted  his  careful 
thought  and  scrupulous  labor  for  nearly  half  a  century.  While 
it  was  thus  under  his  direction,  the  business  of  the  bank  increased 
thirteenfold. 

Conscientious  in  the  performance  of  professional  duty,  he 
did  not  allow  it  to  possess  him  completely.  Mr.  Adam  was  of 
the  sort  which  loves  a  trout  brook,  a  stretch  of  hilly  woodland, 
a  winding  country  road.  He  was  an  affectionate  and  constant 
comrade  of  worthy  books,  and  the  yield  of  his  own  diffident  pen 
was  charming  and  felicitous.  His  wit  was  proverbial  in  Pitts- 
field. He  was  a  master  of  the  art  of  amiable  banter,  and  his 
humor  would  sparkle  and  shine  suddenly  from  behind  a  screen 
of  grave  courtliness.     In  business  transactions,  in  public  or  in 


PROMINENT  CITIZENS  349 

social  life,  and  in  his  church,  Mr.  Adam's  obvious  desire  was  not 
only  to  see  the  right  thing  done,  but  also  to  see  the  right  thing 
done  amicably;  and  to  meet  him  was  to  be  conscious  of  a  serene 
and  sunny  influence. 

James  W.  Hull  served  the  Berkshire  Life  Insurance  Company, 
as  treasurer,  secretary,  and  president,  for  nearly  forty  years. 
He  was  born  in  New  Lebanon,  in  the  state  of  New  York,  Sep- 
tember twentieth,  1842,  In  1865  he  came  to  Pittsfield  to  enter 
the  employ  of  the  Pittsfield  National  Bank,  and  he  began  his 
service  with  the  Berkshire  Life  Insurance  Company  in  1872. 
On  February  second,  1911,  he  died  at  Pittsfield.  In  1876  he  had 
been  married  to  Miss  Helen  Edwards  Plunkett,  daughter  of 
Thomas  F.  Plunkett. 

The  watchfulness  and  industry  with  which  he  applied  himself 
to  his  business  employment  might  well  have  utilized  completely 
the  energies  of  one  less  vigorously  minded.  But  his  intellect, 
to  an  uncommon  degree,  was  accumulative,  always  reaching  out 
for  new  ideas;  he  was,  in  rural  phrase,  full  of  schemes;  and  the 
result  of  this  was  that  Mr.  Hull  either  originated  or  stimulated 
many  local  projects  of  many  different  sorts  of  value.  Especially 
noteworthy  were  his  progressive  leadership  of  the  town's  school 
committee  and  his  co-operation  in  obtaining  for  Pittsfield  the 
convenience  of  street  railways;  and  continuously  after  1894  he 
served  the  Commonwealth  as  a  member  of  its  board  of  health. 

Though  his  mind  was  busily  productive  of  schemes,  it  was 
not  fanciful;  and  his  faculty  of  choosing  schemes  and  of  carrying 
them  into  effect  was  guided  by  prudence  and  common  sense. 
His  memory  was  tenacious,  and  his  long  and  close  acquaintance 
with  the  characters  of  important  Pittsfield  men  and  their  doings 
gave  him  a  pleasant  fund  of  local  anecdote,  in  which  was  plenti- 
fully manifest  his  pride  in  the  town  and  in  its  citizenry.  His 
stature  was  commanding,  and  his  face  and  tall,  erect  figure  were 
not  easily  forgotten.  Mr.  Hull  was  a  man  of  strong  personal 
attachments  whose  intimates  were  few.  Lifelong  devotion  to  a 
weighty  financial  trust  did  not  tend  to  make  him  demonstrative. 
People  in  difiiculty,  however,  sought  his  aid  with  confidence, 
and  his  practical  kindnesses  were  frequent  and  unostentatious. 
Of  an  aggressive  temperament  and  trained  hardily  in  the  con- 


350  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

tentions  of  business  life,  he  was  at  the  same  time  deeply  sympa- 
thetic with  the  aspirations  of  others  and  with  the  public  spirit  of 
the  community. 

Jacob  Gimlich,  born  at  Weisenheim,  Bavaria,  October  fourth, 
1845,  came  to  Pittsfield  in  1860.  The  portion  of  his  youth  was 
one  of  self-denial  and  rigorous  toil,  and  after  he  had  become  a 
man  of  means  and  influence,  he  retained  an  understanding 
sympathy  with  the  toilers  and  with  the  poor.  The  successful 
brewery,  which  he  conducted  for  more  than  forty  years  in  associa- 
tion with  John  White,  did  not  monopolize  his  keen  business  ac- 
tivity. Mr.  Gimlich  was  importantly  connected  with  organizing 
the  Berkshire  Loan  and  Trust  Company,  the  City  Savings  Bank, 
and  the  Musgrove  Knitting  Company.  In  1884  and  in  1885  he 
represented  the  town  in  the  state  legislature.  He  died  at  Pitts- 
field,  January  twenty-first,  1912.  He  was  an  energetic,  frank, 
generous  man,  with  a  simple  affection,  characteristic  of  his  race, 
for  music,  and  companionship,  and  home  life;  and  his  devout  and 
enthusiastic  support  of  the  German  Lutheran  Church  was  of 
great  assistance  to  that  society.  Family  ties  had  bound  him 
closely  in  his  boyhood  to  soldiers  of  our  Civil  War,  and  American 
patriotism  was  always  in  him  a  dominant  trait,  nor  were  his  civic 
patriotism  and  neighborly  spirit  less  noteworthy. 

An  especially  efficient  water  commissioner  under  the  old  fire 
district  government  was  John  Feeley,  who  died  in  Pittsfield, 
January  second,  1915.  He  was  born  in  Brooklyn,  New  York,  in 
1825,  began  to  learn  the  tinner's  trade  in  Pittsfield  in  1846,  and 
for  forty-two  years  conducted  a  shop  on  North  Street  for  the  sale 
of  heating  and  plumbing  appliances.  He  was  chosen  water 
commissioner  in  1864,  and  served  until  the  town  became  a  city. 
Keen-minded,  progressive,  and  public-spirited,  Mr.  Feeley  pos- 
sessed an  unusual  faculty  of  recollection,  and  in  his  old  age  he 
was  a  valued  source  of  information  regarding  earlier  days. 
Beginning  in  1870,  he  was  for  three  years  chief  of  the  fire  depart- 
ment. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 
THE  150TH  ANNIVERSARY  CELEBRATION  IN  1911 

PITTSFIELD,  both  as  town  and  city,  has  been  strongly- 
addicted  to  the  pleasant  custom  of  holding  public  cele- 
brations and  of  making  the  most  of  them.  The  peace 
party  of  1783,  the  reception  to  Lafayette  in  1825,  the  Berkshire 
Jubilee  in  1844,  the  return  of  the  Forty-ninth  regiment  in  1863, 
the  dedication  of  the  Soldiers'  Monument  in  1872,  each  elicited 
enthusiastic  and  hospitable  public  spirit;  and  the  same  may  be 
said  of  scores  of  Independence  Day  celebrations,  and  firemen's 
musters.  But  Pittsfield  seems  not  to  have  been  moved  until 
1911  to  observe  an  anniversary  in  her  own  history,  nor  to  cele- 
brate herself,  so  to  speak,  with  the  notable  exception  of  the  ob- 
servance of  the  inauguration  of  the  first  city  government.  The 
town  was  born  in  1761,  and  accordingly  both  her  fiftieth  and  her 
one  hundredth  birthdays  fell  at  a  time  when  the  Republic  was 
on  the  brink  of  war  and  when  Pittsfield  people  were  in  a  mood 
too  stern  for  self -congratulation. 

In  1911,  however,  circumstances  were  peculiarly  auspicious 
for  an  adequate  observance  of  the  150th  anniversary  of  the  in- 
corporation of  the  town.  The  nation  was  at  peace.  The  city 
had  recently  attained  a  prosperity  unexampled  in  its  history. 
Local  pride  was  reasonably  exalted.  Moreover,  it  should  be 
noted  that,  within  a  few  years,  the  Merchants'  Association  and 
the  Board  of  Trade  had  conducted  Fourth  of  July  and  other 
celebrations  on  a  novelly  elaborate  scale  and  that  thus  many 
citizens  had  become  somewhat  trained  in  managing  such  events 
so  as  to  secure  safety,  general  co-operation,  and  impressive  effect. 

It  was  formally  pursuant  to  a  request  from  the  Board  of 
Trade  that  the  mayor,  in  February,  1911,  designated  a  com- 
mittee, composed  of  members  of  the  city  government  and  of 
private  citizens,  "to  consider  the  observance  of  the  150th  anni- 


352  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

versary  of  the  founding  of  Pittsfield,  and  a  Fourth  of  July  cele- 
bration." The  committee  consisted  of  John  Nicholson,  Henry 
Traver,  Jr.,  Edward  Rosenbaum,  William  L.  Adam,  Edward 
Boltwood,  George  H.  Cooper,  and  William  H.  Eaton.  John 
Nicholson  was  the  chairman,  and  the  mayor,  Kelton  B,  Miller, 
served  on  the  committee  as  chairman  ex  officio.  William  F. 
Francis  was  chosen  secretary.  The  first  meeting  of  the  com- 
mittee was  held  on  February  twenty-third,  and  the  members 
viewed  the  subject  of  their  consideration  with  such  favor  that 
they  immediately  proceeded  to  the  organization  of  an  executive 
committee  to  plan  and  carry  out  the  details  of  the  proposed  ob- 
servance. As  finally  constituted,  this  executive  committee  in 
charge  of  the  150th  anniversary  celebration  was  composed  of 
Kelton  B.  Miller,  (chairman  ex  officio),  John  Nicholson  (chair- 
man), William  F.  Francis  (secretary),  Henry  Traver,  Jr.,  Henry 
A.  Brewster,  Edward  Rosenbaum,  J.  H.  Enright,  John  W^hite, 
William  Russell  Allen,  Henry  R.  Peirson,  H.  B.  Sees,  George  H. 
Cooper,  E.  J.  Spall,  William  H.  Eaton,  Luke  J.  Minahan,  William 
L.  Adam,  Freeman  M.  Miller,  Clement  F.  Coogan,  Chester  E. 
Gleason,  A.  M.  Stronach,  William  J.  Mercer,  David  J.  Gimlich, 
Dr.  M.  W.  Flynn,  Daniel  England,  P.  H.  O'Donnell,  S.  Chester 
Lyon,  A.  J.  Newman,  L.  W.  Harger,  Sydney  T.  Braman,  Edward 
N.  Huntress,  Edward  Boltwood,  and  Robert  D.  Bardwell. 
Twenty  sub-committees  were  appointed,  of  which  about  five 
hundred  people  were  members  and  each  of  which  was  under  the 
leadership  of  a  member  of  the  executive  committee  as  chairman. 
The  scope  of  the  celebration  is  indicated  by  the  titles  of  the  sub- 
committees— ecclesiastical  services,  music,  historical,  decora- 
tions, finance,  entertainment,  educational,  parade,  industrial, 
fireworks,  commercial,  illuminations,  societies,  invitations,  or- 
ganizations, printing,  reception,  aviation,  publicity,  and  trans- 
portation. 

Beginning  early  in  March,  the  executive  committee  held 
weekly  meetings  at  the  city  hall.  To  defray  the  expenses  of  the 
celebration,  an  appropriation  of  $4,000  was  made  by  the  mu- 
nicipal government,  and  a  public  subscription  and  sale  of  souve- 
nirs, conducted  by  the  finance  committee,  resulted  in  the  addi- 
tion of  $8,200  to  the  fund.     The  date  set  for  beginning  the  cele- 


JOSEPH  TUCKER 
1832—1907 


WILLIAM  A.   WHITTLESEY 
1849—1906 


JOSEPH  E.  A.  SMITH 
1822—1896 


HEZEKIAH  S.  RUSSELL 
1835—1914 


THE  150TH  ANNIVERSARY  IN  1911  353 

bration  was  Sunday,  July  second.  A  month  or  two  before  that 
day,  popular  interest  had  been  aroused  by  the  publication  of  a 
long  series  of  newspaper  articles,  treating  of  Pittsfield  history 
and  arranged  by  the  publicity  committee;  and  the  committee 
on  invitations  had  invited  the  attendance  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  the  governor  of  the  Commonwealth,  the  mayors 
of  Massachusetts  cities,  the  selectmen  of  Berkshire  County 
towns,  several  hundred  former  citizens  of  Pittsfield,  and  the 
English  descendants  of  William  Pitt. 

In  the  last  week  of  June,  a  loan  collection  of  portraits  and 
memorabilia,  consisting  of  several  hundred  items,  was  placed 
on  exhibition  in  the  Museum  on  South  Street.  Arranged  by 
the  historical  committee,  this  collection,  including  contributions 
from  scores  of  homes,  was  of  exceptional  attractiveness  and  was 
probably  the  most  complete  assemblage  of  the  sort  ever  seen  in 
Pittsfield.  Especially  interesting  were  about  fifty  photographs 
picturing  the  town  from  1854  to  1880,  lent  from  the  valuable 
collection  of  Erwin  H.  Kennedy.  The  exhibition  remained  on 
view  for  a  month.  The  marking  of  historical  sites  was  another 
preliminary  work  of  the  anniversary  celebration.  Thirty-eight 
places  of  historic  interest  within  a  short  radius  of  the  Park  were 
studiously  identified  and  designated  by  temporary  markers. 
Some  of  these  sites  may  here  be  enumerated  for  the  benefit  of  the 
curious  antiquarian.  They  included  the  site  of  the  first  public 
school,  immediately  west  of  St.  Stephen's  Church;  of  the  first 
meeting  house,  fifty  feet  south  of  the  First  Church;  of  Capt. 
Dickinson's  tavern  (1798),  on  the  corner  of  North  and  West 
Streets;  of  the  Pittsfield  Coffee-house,  where  now  stands  Martin's 
block  on  Bank  Row;  and  of  the  Berkshire  Bank,  the  first  Agri- 
cultural Bank,  and  the  Pittsfield  Female  Academy,  on  the  land 
of  the  Berkshire  Athenaeum.  At  the  south  corner  of  North  and 
Depot  Streets  a  marker  was  placed  indicating  that  one  hundred 
feet  to  the  west  stood  the  home  of  John  Brown,  Pittsfield's  most 
distinguished  soldier  in  the  Revolution.  The  site  of  the  first  fire 
engine  house  was  designated,  on  School  Street  next  the  Baptist 
Church;  and  that  of  the  town  powder  house,  which  stood  near 
the  present  hose  tower  and  was  mischievously  blown  up  in  1838, 
with  disastrous  results.     Markers  also  indicated  the  sites  of  the 


354  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

original  railroad  station  at  the  railroad  bridge  on  North  Street, 
and  of  the  first  post  office,  on  the  east  corner  of  East  and  Second 
Streets,  The  former  homes  of  famous  citizens  were  marked,  like 
the  house  of  William  Francis  Bartlett  on  Wendell  Avenue  and  of 
Henry  Laurens  Dawes  on  Elm  Street.  Where  Elm  Street  crosses 
the  river  and  where  was  built  the  first  bridge  in  Pittsfield,  a 
marker  pointed  out  that  nearby  was  the  site  of  the  first  mill  dam 
and  of  the  house  where  the  first  town  meeting  assembled.  Far- 
ther down  the  stream,  near  the  intersection  of  High  Street  and 
Appleton  Avenue,  a  marker  indicated  the  site  of  the  house  of 
Patrick  Daley,  where,  in  1835,  religious  services  according  to 
the  rites  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church  were  celebrated  for  the 
first  time  in  Berkshire  County. 

The  preparatory  labors  of  appropriate  committees  included 
also  the  decoration  and  illumination  of  the  streets  and  public 
buildings.  In  the  task  of  street  decoration,  the  committeemen 
were,  of  course,  greatly  assisted  by  private  effort.  Much  was 
made  of  electrical  illumination.  A  reviewing  stand,  seating 
seven  hundred  people,  was  erected  on  the  lawn  in  front  of  the 
Museum  on  South  Street.  The  Park  was  elaborately  arrayed, 
with  pillars,  shields,  and  bunting,  as  a  "court  of  honor",  in 
proper  recognition  of  its  being  the  historic  center,  hallowed  by 
tradition,  of  Pittsfield  life.  Here  the  electrical  display  was  note- 
worthy, for  about  4,000  lamps  were  utilized. 

The  celebration  was  formally  opened  Sunday  forenoon,  July 
second,  when  specially  arranged  services  were  conducted  at  the 
churches.  The  corner  stone  of  the  new  Morningside  Baptist 
Church  was  laid  by  the  pastor.  Rev.  Harry  C.  Leach;  and  the 
exercises  included  addresses  by  Louis  A.  Frothingham,  lieutenant 
governor  of  the  Commonwealth,  Rev.  Herbert  S.  Johnson,  and 
Kelton  B.  Miller.  Mr.  Frothingham,  in  the  course  of  his  speech, 
laid  stress  upon  the  propriety  of  making  the  laying  of  the  corner 
stone  of  a  church  an  integral  part  of  the  anniversary  observances. 

"We  meet  at  an  auspicious  time  for  the  dedication  of  this 
holy  edifice.  It  is  the  150th  anniversary  of  the  founding  of 
Pittsfield.  As  the  church  has  ever  been  the  bulwark  of  the  state 
and  nation,  it  is  appropriate  that  such  a  ceremony  as  we  are  to 
perform  today  should  begin  the  anniversary  exercises.  You  are 
fortunate,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  in  your  history,  in  your  sur- 


THE  150TH  ANNIVERSARY  IN  1911  355 

roundings,  and  in  your  successful  accomplishment.  The  very- 
name  of  your  city  recalls  the  life  of  a  great  Englishman  whose 
soul  breathed  forth  the  spirit  of  freedom  and  brotherly  love. 
To  Chatham,  who  stood  on  such  a  high  plane  as  a  statesman  and 
brought  his  country  to  the  zenith  of  her  power,  this  country,  too, 
owes  a  debt  of  gratitude,  and  any  city  should  be  proud  to  bear 
his  name." 

In  the  afternoon,  a  mass  meeting  assembled  at  the  reviewing 
stand  on  South  Street.  Music  was  supplied  by  a  chorus  of  one 
hundred  singers,  directed  by  Charles  F.  Smith.  Mayor  Miller 
presided,  the  principal  address  was  made  by  President  Harry  A. 
Garfield  of  Williams  College,  and  other  speeches  by  Rev.  William 
J.  Dower,  Charles  E.  Hibbard,  and  Hezekiah  S.  Russell,  who 
was  one  of  the  three  former  selectmen  then  surviving.  Mr. 
Hibbard  reminded  his  hearers  of  the  true  significance  of  the 
occasion : 

"The  birthday  of  a  nation,  of  a  municipality,  or  of  an  indi- 
vidual in  and  of  itself  is  of  small  moment,  but  when  the  birthday 
marks  the  beginning  of  a  life  or  career  of  service  to  humanity,  or 
the  practical  working  out  of  high  ideals  in  national,  communal, 
or  individual  life,  then  that  day  has  significance,  and  is  worthy  of 

commemoration Pride  in  Pittsfield's  past  history 

and  her  present  worth  is  pardonable  and  justifiable,  and  is  a 
marked  characteristic  of  her  citizens,  but  as  mere  pride  in  ances- 
try and  family  possessions  never  yet  made  a  useful  man  or 
woman,  and  is  a  worthy  sentiment  only  when  it  incites  to  emula- 
tion of  the  virtues  of  the  past,  so  mere  pride  in  Pittsfield's  past 
will  not  make  of  us  useful  citizens  except  as  it  inspires  us  with 
the  ambition  to  maintain  the  high  standard  of  the  past,  to  con- 
tinue her  honorable  record,  and  to  perpetuate,  enlarge,  and  make 
more  effective  the  blessings  we  have  inherited. 

"What  an  array  of  noble  men  and  women  have  made  Pitts- 
field  their  home,  and  what  a  record  of  service  to  Pittsfield,  to 
the  state,  and  to  the  nation  they  have  made!  We  need  not  the 
record  of  the  printed  pages  or  the  words  from  the  platform  to  re- 
mind us  of  what  the  citizens  of  Pittsfield  have  done.  As  we  look 
about  us,  we  see  on  every  hand  memorials  of  their  devotion  to  the 
best  there  is  in  life,  in  the  institutions  and  organizations  estab- 
lished, or  endowed,  or  supported,  to  promote  the  religious,  moral, 
and  intellectual  uplift  of  the  people,  to  cultivate  the  right  think- 
ing and  right  living  of  our  youth,  and  to  minister  to  the  wants  of 
the  aged,  the  sick,  and  the  unfortunate.  Would  you  understand 
in  part  the  price  Pittsfield  paid  for  the  preservation  of  the  nation, 


356  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

go  stand  before  yonder  monument,  Pittsfield's  memorial  to  her 
soldier  dead,  and,  with  bared  heads,  read  from  the  tablets  thereon 
the  roll  of  honor,  the  names  of  Pittsfield's  sons  who  gave  their 
lives  a  sacrifice  that  the  nation  might  live.  If  it  be  true,  and  it  is 
true,  that  memorials  of  great  events  and  of  distinguished  service 
in  the  lives  of  nations  have  ever  been  a  power  in  keeping  alive 
and  operative  love  of  country  and  devotion  to  duty,  these  many 
memorials  of  ours  should  be  a  power  in  this  community.  .  .  . 
for  keeping  alive  our  love  for  Pittsfield  and  our  devotion  to  her 
highest  interests." 

President  Garfield  found  occasion  to  describe  pleasantly  the 
impression  made  by  the  city  upon  a  visitor: 

"Founded  when  her  sister  cities  to  the  east  and  west  were  old, 
Pittsfield  is  still  young  in  strength  and  beauty,  though  six  gen- 
erations, as  men  count  time,  have  lived  to  serve  and  honor  her. 

"The  visitor  to  your  fair  city  must  almost  conclude  that  you 
are  spared  the  hard  problems  which  beset  other  municipalities. 
He  sees  no  places  crowded  and  ill-kept,  wherein  lurking  disease 
and  sordid  vice  find  easy  prey;  no  buildings  smiting  the  sky  and 
casting  black  shadows  on  damp  and  narrow  streets;  but  broad 
avenues  bulwarked  by  friendly  buildings,  and  stately  highways 
shaded  by  the  sheltering  foliage  of  a  thousand  trees.  He  sees  no 
masses  of  humanity  filling  the  streets,  madly  pursuing  fortune 
and  pursued  by  care.  Friend  meets  friend  in  pleasant  inter- 
course; keen  in  rivalry  but  considerate;  proud  of  the  city's 
growth,  but  rejoicing  in  her  natural  beauty  and  cultivation. 

"And  yet  no  visitor  familiar  with  municipal  life  in  the  United 
States  can  fail  to  know  that  you  have  not  wholly  escaped.  The 
change  from  town  to  city  in  1891  was  momentous.  It  produced 
as  well  as  reflected  conditions.  When  you  became  a  city,  you 
thought  as  a  city.  Undoubtedly  new  kinds  of  problems  have 
pressed  upon  you  during  the  last  twenty  years  and  some  of  them 
may  be  traceable  to  your  thought  of  Pittsfield  as  a  city.  But 
manifestly  the  strong,  simple  life  of  the  New  England  town  has 
not  been  spoiled.  Your  inheritances  remain,  guaranteeing  a 
future  of  unexcelled  influence." 

In  the  evening,  anniversary  addresses  were  delivered  at  St. 
Joseph's  Church  by  Rev.  P.  W.  Morrissey,  at  St.  Charles'  Church 
by  Rev.  William  J.  Dower,  and  at  the  First  Church  by  Rev.  I. 
Chipman  Smart.  Father  Morrissey  asked  attention  to  some  of 
the  virtues  of  those  responsible  for  the  early  development  of  the 
town : 

"Our  present  material  prosperity  assures  us  in  no  uncertain 


THE  150TH  ANNIVERSARY  IN  1911  357 

way  that  our  forefathers,  who  lived  their  years  in  this  beneficent 
clime,  were  men  and  women  devoted  to  work,  and  the  evidences 
of  industry,  which  we  behold  around  us,  fill  us  with  admiration 
and  gratitude  for  the  proud  possessions  which  we  enjoy  at  a  cost 
to  them  of  great  suffering  and  much  personal  sacrifice.  From  a 
small  and  insignificant  hamlet,  with  a  few  scattered  settlers,  our 
city  has  grown  and  flourished  until  in  its  present  magnificent 
development  it  gives  shelter  to  thousand  of  industrious  and 
peace-loving  citizens.  Some  of  the  present  day  population  can 
trace  relationship  back  to  the  sturdy  men  of  Pittsfield's  early 
foundation.  Most  of  us,  however,  have  come  here,  or  are  des- 
cendants of  men  and  women  who  came  here,  to  unite  their  toil 
with  the  toil  of  the  citizenry  of  the  past  in  the  upbuilding  of  our 
city  in  its  present  healthful  proportions. 

"But  proud  as  we  are  of  the  record  of  accomplishment 
achieved  through  the  labors  and  sacrifices  of  a  sturdy  ancestry, 
and  grateful  as  we  all  must  be  for  the  happiness  and  comforts 
which  are  ours  in  abounding  measvire,  we  must  not  be  unmindful 
of  the  fact  that  material  accomplishment  and  civic  betterment 
can  only  come  and  in  truth  have  only  come  to  our  community 
life  as  a  reward  of  virtue,  and  resultant  of  religious  conviction 
and  practice." 

Father  Dower  eloquently  reviewed  the  work  of  Catholicism 
in  America.  Dr.  Smart,  speaking  at  the  First  Church  with  a 
peculiar  knowledge  of  the  city  and  its  citizens,  prefaced  his  ad- 
dress with  an  interesting  estimate  of  certain  local  characteristics : 

"Pittsfield  people  think  well  of  Pittsfield,  not  with  loud 
boasting,  at  least,  in  the  typical  Pittsfield  man,  but  with  an  air 
of  satisfaction  which  recalls  the  princes  in  'Cymbeline'.  They 
dwelt  modestly  in  a  cave,  but  their  thoughts  'did  hit  the  roofs  of 
palaces'.  This  habit  of  Pittsfield  people  to  rest  content  with 
Pittsfield  is  not  new.  Neither  is  it  comparative.  It  would  be 
the  same  if  we  knew  no  other  places,  and  it  would  be  the  same  if 
we  knew  all  other  places. 

"It  is  positive  appreciation  of  our  own  things.  The  self- 
contained  quality  of  life  in  Pittsfield  is  due  partly,  perhaps,  to 
the  fact  that  it  was  so  long  an  outpost  of  civilization  in  the 
Commonwealth,  too  far  from  Boston,  behind  its  protecting 
mountains,  to  snuff  up  the  east  wind.  Isolation  often  means  a 
life  poverty  stricken,  cramped,  stranded  in  muddy  shallows. 
Pittsfield  was  spared  loss  through  isolation  by  her  strong  men. 
In  the  professions  and  in  business,  she  had  men  of  stature,  men 
of  vision,  men  of  wide  repute,  gifted  for  service  and  rule,  and 
devoted  to  the  town,  some  of  them  traveled  men,  not  a  few  of  them 


358  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

men  of  marked  and  unrestrained  individuality.  What  they  did  and 
thought  and  said  in  the  town  is  a  large  part  of  what  they  did  for 
the  town 

"Some  conditions  which  helped  to  make  a  self-contained  life 
in  Pittsfield  are  no  longer  operative.  We  are  not  now  aloof 
from  the  world.  A  growing  number  of  our  inhabitants  are  here 
today  and  gone  tomorrow.  The  control  of  our  great  business  is 
elsewhere.  Some  elements,  inner  and  outer,  which  went  to  the 
making  of  our  leaders  and  procured  them  deference,  are  wanting 
now.  When  our  heroes  go,  we  do  not  replace  them.  We  have 
the  temper  of  the  men  who  voted  for  Andrew  Jackson  long  after 
he  was  dead.  We  have  a  custom  of  the  heart  and  will  not  break 
it.  But  the  fathers  did  not  exhaust  heroism.  There  are,  there 
will  be,  heroes  serving  their  generation  better  than  the  fathers 
could  serve  it,  and  we  shall  approve  them  and  follow  them,  al- 
though of  course  we  cannot  feel  towards  them  quite  as  we  feel 
towards  the  heroes  who  kindled  our  imagination  of  successful 
life  in  the  days  of  our  youth." 

Finally,  among  the  anniversary  observances  of  the  first  day, 
was  a  brief  speech  at  the  railroad  station  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  William  Howard  Taft,  who  happily  chanced  to  be 
passing  through  the  city.  The  attendance  at  the  services  and 
meetings  of  Sunday  was  admirable,  both  in  numbers  and  spirit, 
and  it  was  manifest  that  the  people  were  entering  upon  their 
celebration  with  an  adequate  sense  of  its  significance.  The 
weather  was  fair,  and  so  continued,  but  the  unusual  heat  of  the 
three  days  was  long  remembered. 

The  forenoon  of  the  next  day,  July  third,  was  devoted  in  chief 
to  the  dedicatory  exercises  of  a  stone  and  tablet,  commemorative 
of  the  headquarters  of  some  of  the  town's  early  patriots.  The 
marker,  placed  at  the  northwest  corner  of  the  premises  of  the 
Museum,  bears  this  inscription: 

NEAR  THIS  SPOT  STOOD 

EASTON'S  TAVERN 

HERE  ON  MAY  1,  1776,  COL.  JAMES 

EASTON  AND  JOHN  BROWN  OF  PITTSFIELD 

AND  CAPTAIN  EDWARD  MOTT  OF  PRESTON. 

CONNECTICUT,  PLANNED  THE  CAPTURE  OF 

FORT  TICONDEROGA,  WHICH  ON  MAY  10 

SURRENDERED  TO  THE  CONTINENTAL  VOLUNTEERS 

UNDER  ETHAN  ALLEN  WITH 

COLONEL  EASTON  SECOND  IN  COMMAND. 


THE  150TH  ANNIVERSARY  IN  1911  359 

This  memorial  had  been  provided  by  Berkshire  Chapter,  Sons 
of  the  American  Revolution,  and  the  dedication  accordingly  was 
under  the  auspices  of  the  chapter.  Joseph  E.  Peirson  presided. 
The  reviewing  stand  nearby  was  occupied  by  a  large  chorus  of 
public  school  children,  so  arranged  in  costumes  of  red,  white, 
and  blue  as  to  present  the  appearance  of  a  huge  United  States 
flag.  Speeches  on  behalf  of  Berkshire  Chapter  were  made  by 
Dr.  J.  F.  A.  Adams  and  Edward  T.  Slocum,  and  on  behalf  of  the 
national  society  by  Luke  S.  Stowe  of  Springfield.  Walter  F. 
Hawkins  made  the  address  of  dedication.  In  a  tribute  to  Col. 
Easton  and  men  like  him,  who  wrought  our  national  independ- 
ence, Mr.  Hawkins  said : 

"All  honor  to  the  settlers  of  Pontoosuc,  to  them  who  'wan- 
dered in  the  wilderness  in  a  solitary  way  and  found  no  city  to 
dwell  in';  who,  with  indomitable  courage  and  incredible  exer- 
tion, wrested  from  the  frowning  asperities  of  nature  sufficient 
space  for  a  habitable  abode,  and  within  its  limits  constrained 
the  wilderness  to  blossom  like  the  rose;  who  fought  stoutly  and 
nobly  in  the  fight  for  liberty  and  for  the  new  nation's  right  to 
live;  who  set  so  shining  an  example  so  splendidly  followed,  in 
heroism  and  devotion,  by  Pittsfield's  sons  and  daughters  through- 
out the  Civil  War;  who  founded,  strengthened,  and  gave  shape 
to  what  is  worthiest  and  likeliest  of  permanence  in  our  municipal 
life  today.  Still  higher  honor,  if  there  be  room  for  higher,  be- 
longs to  the  women  of  those  days,  for  their  cheerful  fortitude 
under  common  hardships;  for  their  heroism  in  times  of  stress; 
suffering  on  their  remote  farms,  their  husbands  absent  in  the 
wars,  who  knows  what  toil,  what  harrowing  anxieties,  what  un- 
imaginable loneliness. 

"These  are  the  sources  to  which  we  trace  the  Pittsfield  of 
today,  these  are  the  just  objects  of  our  fervent  gratitude.  But 
gratitude  is  but  a  weak  tribute  when  unaccompanied  by  any 
pledge  of  determined  effort;  and  it  is  a  poor  heart  that  only  re- 
joices in  the  felicities  of  the  moment  and  takes  no  thought  of  its 
responsibilities  for  the  morrow.  Surely  the  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  to  which  Pittsfield's  history  has  measured  are  but  a 
span  in  that  period  of  healthful  and  honorable  existence  that  we 
believe  ordained  for  her  by  a  benignant  providence.  Tor  we 
are  Ancients  of  the  earth,  and  in  the  morning  of  the  times.' 
We  must  set  our  faces  steadfastly  forward,  harking  back  only 
so  far  as  may  be  needed  to  catch  a  whisper  of  the  message  of  the 
past,  and  glancing  behind  us  only  for  guidance  in  the  direction  in 
which  our  feet  should  press  forward.     Civic  duty  is  no  hollow 


360  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

plirase,  nor  its  performance  an  impractical  and  a  fanciful  ideal. 
As  honesty,  in  the  lowest  view  of  it,  is  the  best  commercial  policy, 
so  is  patriotism  the  surest  promoter  of  the  prosperous  community; 
and  patriotism,  like  charity,  begins  at  home." 

On  Monday  afternoon,  a  street  pageant,  illustrative  of 
Pittsfield  history,  interested  several  thousand  spectators.  The 
procession,  in  which  about  six  hundred  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren participated,  was  composed  of  scenic  floats  and  costumed 
groups,  each  representing  an  episode  or  period  in  the  past  of  the 
town,  and  was  the  result  of  the  public-spirited  effort  of  the  city's 
social,  fraternal,  and  patriotic  organizations.  The  pageant  was 
animated,  the  colors  were  well  selected,  and  the  effects,  whether 
stirring  or  humorous,  repaid  many  laborious  weeks  of  prepara- 
tion. 

The  subjects  illustrated  in  the  historical  pageant  were: 
"An  Indian  camp"  (1600);  "Early  frontiersmen"  (1743),  "The 
first  settlers"  (1752);  "The  blockhouse  at  Unkamet's  crossing" 
(1757);  "The  first  town  meeting"  (1761);  "Making  uniforms  for 
Capt.  Noble's  minute  men"  (1774);  "Parson  Allen  leading 
Pittsfield  farmers  to  the  Bennington  fight"  (1777);  "The  Peace 
Party"  (1783);  "Lucretia  Williams  saving  the  Old  Elm"  (1790); 
"Printing  the  first  Pittsfield  Sun"  (1800);  "Wheelocks's  dra- 
goons" (1812);  "The  visit  of  Lafayette"  (1825);  "A  district 
school"  (1830);  "A  volunteer  fire  company"  (1832);  "Life  with 
the  Shakers"  (1836);  "Building  the  Western  Railroad"  (1841); 
"The  Berkshire  Jubilee"  (1844);  "An  old-time  cattle  show" 
(1855);  "The  Maplewood  'bus"  (1858);  "Parthenia  Fenn  and 
Pittsfield  women  sewing  for  the  soldiers"  (1861);  "The  Allen 
Guard  leaving  Pittsfield  for  the  front"  (1861);  and  "The  City  of 
Pittsfield"  (1911).  While  the  procession  was  a  lively  spectacle, 
it  lacked  neither  a  certain  educational  nor  a  sentimental  value. 

During  the  day  the  number  of  visitors  attracted  by  the  cele- 
bration had  been  greatly  increased,  the  return  of  many  former 
residents  had  gratified  the  older  citizens,  and  hotels  and  hos- 
pitable homes  witnessed  countless  pleasant  reunions.  Concerts 
by  the  Governor's  Foot  Guard  Band  of  Hartford  and  the  Pitts- 
field Military  Band  enlivened  North  Street  and  the  Common. 
Although  the  celebration  had  been  planned  with  the  design  of 
making  Monday's  proceedings  of  distinctively  local  and  historical 


THE  150TH  ANNIVERSARY  IN  1911  361 

rather  than  of  more  widely  popular  interest,  the  popular  appre- 
ciation was  generous  and  responsive,  and  the  scene  was  that  of  a 
popular  festival. 

In  the  evening,  John  D.  Long  of  Hingham  delivered  the 
150th  anniversary  oration  to  an  audience  assembled  in  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  John  C.  Crosby  presided  at  this 
meeting,  which  was  formally  the  essential  observance  of  the  an- 
niversary. The  eloquent  orator  was  an  old  friend  of  Pittsfield, 
and  could  speak  to  the  meeting  almost  with  the  intimacy  of  per- 
sonal acquaintance.  Governor  of  Massachusetts  in  1880,  '81, 
and  '82,  and  Secretary  of  the  Navy  in  the  cabinet  of  William 
McKinley,  he  was  esteemed  for  his  record  of  distinguished  public 
services;  but,  more  than  that,  he  was  endeared  to  New  England- 
ers  by  his  stalwart  belief  in  their  civil  institutions  and  his  af- 
fectionate knowledge  of  their  character. 

Near  the  beginning  of  his  address,  Mr.  Long  said: 
"I  desire  to  felicitate  you  with  no  fulsome  compliments  to 
your  community,  which  in  its  origin,  its  history,  its  consumma- 
tion, is  perhaps  not  better  than  many  another  like  itself.  But 
I  approach  the  theme  before  me,  suggested  by  the  celebration  of 
the  150th  anniversary  of  your  incorporation,  and  I  look  back  on 
that  long  vista  of  years  with  a  feeling  of  profound  respect  and 
veneration.  You  could  today  have  visited  shrines  of  grander 
fame  over  which  temples  are  wrought  by  masters  of  architecture 
and  gorgeous  with  the  works  of  masters  of  art.  You  could  in 
imagination  recreate  from  Greek  and  Roman  ruins  lying  before 
your  gaze  the  magnificent  grandeur  and  beauty  of  dynasties  that 
have  ruled  the  world.  You  could  in  Westminster  Abbey  hold 
communion  with  illustrious  dead  who  were  living  representatives 
of  the  most  conspicuous  achievement  and  the  proudest  glory  of 
warrior,  statesman,  orator,  poet,  scholar,  and  divine.  But  I 
know  not  how  it  is  that  all  these  seem  to  me  of  lesser  worth 
compared  with  the  humanity  and  beauty  and  significance  of  the 
birthplace  of  a  town  like  this,  where  no  broken  column  of  fallen 
temples  tells  of  the  magnificence  and  luxury  of  the  few  wrung 
from  the  poverty  and  degradation  of  the  many;  where  no  statue 
or  shrine  keeps  alive  the  memory  of  conqueror,  or  king,  or  tyrant; 
but  where  rather  began  the  growth  of  a  people  whose  common 
recognition,  in  town  organization,  of  the  equal  rights  of  all  men 
could  not  endure  that  any  child  should  be  uneducated,  or  that 
any  poor  should  remain  destitute,  or  that  any  one  caste  should 
hold  supremacy  and  another  be  ground  under  foot,  or  that  any 
slave  should  breathe  Massachusetts  air." 


362  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

The  general  theme  of  the  charming  and  forceful  address  was 
the  need  of  applying  the  spirit  of  old  New  England,  exemplified 
by  the  founders  of  Pittsfield,  to  the  national  and  social  problems 
of  modern  America,  and  the  peroration  was  introduced  by  a 
dramatic  fantasy. 

"I  have  seen  among  you  today,  not  quite  a  stranger  and  yet 
like  one  who,  after  long  absence,  revisits  once  familiar  scenes,  a 
venerable  man  clad  in  colonial  costume,  wearing  a  long  coat  with 
silver  buttons,  with  his  stout  calves  encased  in  homespun  hose, 
with  straps  and  buckles  on  his  shoes,  and  ruffles  around  his 
wrist,  and  a  broad  brimmed,  three-cornered  hat  upon  his  head. 
No  spectator  seemed  to  exhibit  a  deeper  interest  in  your  exer- 
cises, and  yet  it  has  been  an  interest  tinged  with  a  contemplative 
melancholy,  as  if  he  were  groping  in  the  past  to  recall,  out  of  its 
shadows  and  gloom,  scenes  and  faces  that  have  vanished.  Earlier 
in  the  day  you  may  have  noticed  him  in  your  most  ancient  bury- 
ing ground,  pushing  the  grass  from  only  the  oldest  stones  and 
shading  his  dimmed  sight  to  read  the  fading  names;  or  visiting 
the  spot  where  the  first  tavern  stood,  the  proprietor  'allowed  by 
the  court  to  draw  and  sell  wine,  beer,  and  strong  water';  or 
where  was  the  original  blacksmith's  shop,  or  sawmill;  or  the 
manse  of  Parson  Allen. 

"More  than  once  the  tears  have  filled  his  eyes.  You  noted 
the  gesture  of  almost  exhausted  wonderment  with  which,  stand- 
ing a  little  apart  from  the  rest,  he  saw  the  locomotive  thunder 
through  the  town  and  bring  to  your  station  its  freight  of  pas- 
sengers. It  was  my  good  fortune  to  speak  with  him  a  moment; 
and  the  rich  depth  of  his  voice,  his  stately  manner,  his  quaint 
dialect,  his  scriptural  phrase,  struck  me  like  the  fragrance  that 
lingers  around  the  wood  of  a  perfumed  box  from  distant  lands. 

"  'I  never  dreamed'  said  he,  'that  I  should  live  to  see  a  day 
like  this.  The  works  of  the  Lord  are  marvelous  and  past  finding 
out,  I  yearn  for  the  former  time,  but  I  doubt  not  that  in  the 
providence  of  God  all  this  growth  and  grandeur  are  for  the  best. 
I  love  most  to  see  these  happy  homes,  these  beautiful  and  intel- 
ligent children.  I  trust  they  are  all  nurtured  in  the  fear  of  the 
Lord.  I  scarce  can  comprehend  what  I  see  and  hear.  I  am 
bewildered  with  your  libraries,  your  newspapers,  your  school- 
books,  your  many  churches,  your  railroads,  and  telegraph,  and 
telephones,  your  automobiles  and  flying  machines,  your  stories 
of  a  country  that  is  free  from  British  allegiance  and  that  stretches 
from  sea  to  sea,  from  gulf  to  arctic  zone,  and  even  includes  the 
islands  of  the  Orient,  ten  thousand  miles  away.  I  could  not 
make  out  the  ensign  that  floats  above  us  until  they  told  me  it 


THE  150TH  ANNIVERSARY  IN  1911  363 

was  the  flag  of  the  new  republic.  My  eyes  were  seeking  for  the 
English  colors.' 

"And  here  the  old  man  reverently  removed  his  hat,  and  I 
thought  I  heard  something  like  a  prayer  for  long  life  to  good 
King  George.  I  do  not  know  his  name,  but  doubt  not  he  is 
Jacob  Wendell,  or  John  Stoddard,  or  some  other  worthy  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  I  shall  not  forget  the  tremulous 
voice  in  which,  lifting  up  his  hat,  he  said:  'Lord,  now  lettest 
Thou  Thy  servant  depart  in  peace,  according  to  Thy  word;  for 
mine  eyes  have  seen  Thy  salvation  which  Thou  hast  prepared 
before  the  face  of  all  people,  a  light  to  lighten  the  Gentiles  and 
the  glory  of  Thy  people  Israel!' 

"Farewell,  brave,  generous,  true  men  who  founded  this  good 
town!  We  venerate  you.  We  take  in  solemn  trust  into  our 
hands  the  work  of  yours." 

It  so  happened  that  the  people,  as  they  left  the  church  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  evening  meeting,  could  realize  vividly  the 
contrast  between  the  old  and  new  Pittsfield  which  the  orator 
had  thus  dramatized;  for  the  streets,  through  which  they  had 
that  afternoon  seen  pass  the  figures  of  Indians  and  frontiersmen, 
of  the  first  settlers  with  their  teams  of  oxen,  and  of  Parson  Allen, 
riding  in  a  chaise  at  the  head  of  his  embattled  farmers,  were  now 
filled  by  a  parade  impressively  symbolical  of  the  new  Pittsfield 
and  of  the  most  recent  development  of  American  industry. 
This  was  a  procession  of  2,000  operatives  from  the  Pittsfield 
works  of  the  General  Electric  Company.  The  men  had  organized 
the  affair  at  their  own  initiative,  as  their  contribution  to  the  cele- 
bration. The  parade  was  made  brilliant  by  electrical  devices, 
floats,  and  colored  lights,  and  as  it  proceeded  through  the  glow 
of  the  elaborate  illuminations  on  North  Street  and  Park  Square, 
the  effect  was  memorably  picturesque. 

The  Fourth  of  July  celebration  on  the  next  day  concluded 
the  observance  of  the  anniversary.  This  had  been  vigorously 
advertised  by  the  publicity  and  transportation  committees,  ex- 
cursion trains  brought  crowds  from  neighboring  towns,  and  it 
was  believed  that  50,000  spectators  watched  the  parade  of  the 
forenoon.  The  marshal  was  John  Nicholson,  high  sheriff  of  the 
county,  David  J.  Gimlich  was  his  chief-of-staff,  and  John  White, 
Harold  A.  Cooper,  Dr.  W.  J.  Mercer,  William  H.  Marshall, 
H.  L.  Hendee,  and  Harry  D.  Sisson  led  the  six  divisions,  com- 


364  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

prising  military  organizations,  a  uniformed  regiment  of  public 
school  boys,  veteran  and  active  firemen,  numerous  fraternal  and 
labor  societies,  and  a  division  of  thirty-six  industrial  and  com" 
mercial  floats.  About  3,000  marchers  were  in  line.  An  exhibi- 
tion of  aviation  by  aeroplane,  from  a  field  of  the  Allen  farm  near 
the  road  to  Dalton,  had  been  arranged  for  the  afternoon.  The 
first  display  of  the  kind  ever  attempted  in  the  county,  it  was  the 
most  popular  single  attraction,  perhaps,  of  the  celebration;  but 
the  aviator,  Charles  C.  Witmer,  lost  control  of  his  biplane,  the 
steering  wheel  broke,  the  machine  fell,  and  the  flier  was  carried 
to  the  House  of  Mercy,  where  he  eventually  recovered  from  his 
injuries.  This  was  the  only  accident  to  mar  the  events  of  the 
three  days.  During  the  evening,  a  throng  estimated  to  number 
20,000  people  was  entertained  by  band  concerts  and  an  uncom- 
mon show  of  fireworks,  in  the  natural  ampitheater  south  and 
east  of  Colt  Road. 

As  souvenirs  of  the  occasion,  the  financial  committee  placed 
on  sale  an  anniversary  medal,  and  a  tasteful  and  valuable  book 
of  portraits  and  pictures  of  old  and  modern  Pittsfield,  compiled 
by  S.  Chester  Lyon  and  Linus  W.  Harger.  This  book  contains 
also  the  anniversary  ode,  written  by  Harlan  H.  Ballard. 

The  earnest  eloquence  of  the  speakers  and  the  attention  of 
the  audiences  at  the  various  anniversary  meetings,  the  pageantry 
of  the  parades,  the  beauty  of  the  decorations  and  lighting,  the 
size  of  the  crowds  of  visitors,  and  the  hospitable  arrangements 
for  securing  their  safety  and  comfort,  were  alike  impressive; 
but  not  a  few  citizens  preferred  to  be  impressed  by  the  unselfish 
spirit  of  co-operation  actuating  the  hundreds  of  persons  who 
labored,  in  one  way  or  another,  to  make  the  affair  successful. 
There  was  no  lack  of  the  sort  of  civic  pride  which  is  executive 
rather  than  merely  critical;  and  the  anniversary  observances 
not  only  affected  the  sentiments  of  reminiscence  and  self-esteem 
but  also,  in  a  certain  measure,  incited  to  emulation,  and  unified 
the  people  of  the  city. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

PITTSFIELD  IN  1915 

THE  population  of  Pittsfield  was  25,001  in  1905,  32,121 
in  1910,  and  39,607  in  1915,  The  ratio  of  gain,  there- 
fore, between  1910  and  1915  did  not  quite  equal  that 
maintained  during  the  five  years  preceding  1910.  There  were 
many  citizens  who  had  become  inclined,  after  1900,  to  allow  their 
satisfaction  with  Pittsfield  to  depend  in  great  measure,  perhaps 
in  an  unduly  great  measure,  upon  the  census  figures  of  the  grow- 
ing city.  To  these  citizens  any  slackening  of  the  rate  of  numeri- 
cal growth  was  a  disappointment;  and  they  encouraged  them- 
selves in  the  belief  that  in  the  early  part  of  1913  the  population 
touched  40,000.  Certainly  industrial  conditions  in  the  winter 
of  1913-14  were  unfavorable  to  a  gain  in  population,  and  there 
was  probably  a  slight  loss.  Employment  was  not  plentiful, 
either  in  the  textile  or  the  non-textile  factories;  and,  for  the 
first  time  within  the  recollection  of  the  younger  business  men, 
the  number  of  vacant  dwellings  began  to  be  somewhat  disquiet- 
ing. 

But  in  1915  these  conditions  seemed  to  have  markedly  im- 
proved, and  a  description  of  Pittsfield  in  that  year,  which  shall 
be  attempted  by  this  chapter,  should  premise  that  the  spirit  of 
the  people  was  generally  sanguine  and  optimistic,  that  the  manu- 
factories were  busy,  and  that  the  city,  at  the  point  of  concluding 
its  first  quarter-century,  was  the  home  of  a  generally  prosperous 
community. 

It  is  right  to  premise,  too,  that  there  was  a  more  keen,  or  at 
least  a  broader,  appreciation  of  the  civic  problems  involved  in  the 
absorption  of  new  elements  of  population.  Having  been  com- 
pelled to  address  themselves  chiefly  to  the  task  of  expanding 
rapidly  the  physical  equipment  of  the  municipality  and  of  the 
public  and  charitable  institutions,  the  citizens  now  began  to 


366  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

realize  the  wisdom  of  both  expanding  and  deepening  the  civic 
spirit,  in  order  to  render  that  spirit  hospitable  to  the  worthy 
aspirations  of  new-comers.  A  social  observer  in  the  Pittsfield 
of  1915  could  not  have  failed  to  be  impressed  by  the  growing 
readiness  with  which  influential  citizens  urged  the  importance 
of  developing  the  civic  consciousness,  and  of  inciting  the  civic 
patriotism  of  those  who  only  recently  had  made  Pittsfield  their 
home.  Evidence  of  this  is  not  difficult  to  find  in  the  recorded 
opinions  of  leading  men,  as,  for  example,  in  the  reports  of  the 
addresses  at  meetings  organized  for  the  purpose  of  welcoming 
newly  naturalized  citizens  to  the  rights  and  duties  of  citizenship. 
To  the  wish  to  make  the  city  a  good  place  to  live  in  was  added 
the  wish  to  enlist  all  the  people  in  that  cause. 

To  the  gratification  of  the  latter  desire  there  seemed  to  exist 
a  certain  obstacle.  This  was  the  fact  that  a  larger  proportion 
of  the  inhabitants  than  formerly  looked  upon  Pittsfield  as  a 
temporary  residence.  While  it  would  be  an  egregious  blunder  to 
suppose  that  the  gain  in  Pittsfield's  census  between  1900  and 
1915  was  dependent  upon  any  class  which  might  be  called  migra- 
tory, nevertheless  it  is  probably  true  that  an  appreciable  number 
of  the  new  dwellers  would  then  have  spoken  of  Pittsfield  as 
"your",  rather  than  as  "our",  city.  This  detachment  was  as- 
cribable  partly  to  changed  conditions  of  employment,  and  partly 
to  the  characteristic  deliberation  with  which  the  older  commun- 
ity had  submitted  itself  to  readjustment.  The  influences  which 
were  most  obviously  operative  in  breaking  down  this  sort  of  de- 
tachment were  those  exerted  by  the  large  social  and  fraternal 
organizations,  with  which  the  city  was  supplied  far  more  plenti- 
fully than  the  town  of  twenty-five  years  before.  Especially 
useful  in  this  way  were  such  institutions  as  the  Father  Mathew 
Total  Abstinence  Society,  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, the  Boys'  Club,  and  the  Working  Girls',  and  Business 
Women's  Clubs.  It  is  likely,  too,  that  the  city's  religious  socie- 
ties attached  more  importance  than  did  those  of  the  town  to  the 
exercise  of  social  hospitality  to  strangers,  and  the  parish  houses 
of  several  churches  had  become  effectual  social  centers.  Nor 
should  it  be  forgotten  that  the  large  non-sectarian  charitable  as- 
sociations promoted  the  amalgamation  of  the  newer  with  the 
older  elements  of  the  community. 


PITTSFIELD  IN  1915  367 

In  respect  of  the  conduct  of  public  affairs,  the  Pittsfield  of 
1915  was  fortunate  in  that  the  attitude  of  detachment,  to  which 
reference  has  been  made,  was  scarcely  observable.  The  burdens 
and  responsibilities  of  municipal  government  were  distributed, 
as  they  should  be,  without  distinction  of  nativity  or  length  of 
residence  in  the  city. 

The  Board  of  Trade  aimed  to  provide  a  common  meeting 
ground  for  business  and  professional  men.  The  Board,  with 
about  400  members  in  1915  and  then  under  the  presidency 
of  George  A.  Newman,  maintained  offices  in  the  building  of  the 
Agricultural  National  Bank  on  North  Street.  Its  standing  com- 
mittees were  entitled  executive,  membership,  publicity,  civic, 
industrial,  mercantile,  transportation,  and  agricultural.  A 
salaried  secretary  was  employed.  Various  matters  of  interest 
and  value  were  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  public,  civic  events 
and  celebrations  of  divers  sorts  were  organized,  and  commercial 
ventures  new  to  the  city  were  investigated  and,  when  approved, 
practically  encouraged.  To  these  functions  of  the  Board  of 
Trade  should  be  added  the  work  which  it  indirectly  accomplished 
in  offering  to  business  men  of  recent  arrival  the  opportunity  of 
wide  and  immediate  acquaintanceship. 

The  organization  of  workmen  and  artisans  into  labor  unions 
had  progressed  to  such  an  extent  that  there  were  twenty-three 
labor  unions  and  like  associations  in  the  city  in  1915,  a  year 
marked  by  a  particularly  rapid  increase  in  the  local  membership 
of  these  bodies.  The  Central  Labor  Union  had  headquarters 
in  a  hall  in  the  Shipton  building  on  North  Street.  The  individual 
unions  represented  occupations  so  diverse  as  those  of  metal 
workers,  printers,  theater-stage  employees,  moulders,  polishers, 
carpenters,  painters,  bottlers,  barbers,  bricklayers,  masons, 
plasterers,  street  railway  employees,  stationary  firemen,  plumb- 
ers, steam  and  gas  fitters,  and  workers  in  electrical  manufactur- 
ing. Although  applying  themselves  primarily  to  industrial 
questions,  the  unions  in  many  cases  served  to  unify  their  mem- 
bers socially  and  to  make  a  new-comer  feel  that  he  was  at  home. 

The  visitor  to  Pittsfield  in  1915  would  have  found,  then,  a 
community  of  diverging  interests,  but  one  wherein  strong  in- 


368  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

fluences,  properly  encouraged,  were  at  work  to  unite  the  several 
elements. 

At  the  city  election  of  1915,  the  number  of  ballots  cast  was 
7,219.  There  were  still  seven  wards,  although  five  had  been 
divided,  each  into  two  voting  precincts.  The  largest  number  of 
voters  in  any  single  ward  went  to  the  polls  in  Ward  Two,  where 
1,454  ballots  were  registered.  This  ward  lay  in  the  northeastern 
section  of  the  city,  and  included  the  neighborhood  of  the  works 
of  the  General  Electric  Company.  There  both  the  business  and 
residential  development  had  been  brisk.  Passing  eastward 
along  Tyler  Street  from  Grove  Street  to  Woodlawn  Avenue,  an 
observer  might  have  seen  much  of  the  equipment  of  a  distinct 
town — church  edifices,  business  blocks,  stores,  a  moving  picture 
theater,  and  modern  residences;  and  in  the  vicinity  were  two 
well-built  school  houses,  sheltering  the  Crane  and  the  William  B. 
Rice  Schools,  with  an  aggregate  enrolment  of  900  pupils.  Only 
twenty-five  years  before,  this  portion  of  Tyler  Street  was  little 
different  from  a  secluded  country  road. 

Although  in  1915  the  Morningside  district  exhibited  recent 
growth  most  substantially,  there  were  many  indications  of  such 
growth  elsewhere.  Residential  streets  had  been  opened  as  far 
on  the  eastern  outskirts  of  the  city  as  the  land  surrounding  Good- 
rich Pond,  and  the  former  premises  of  the  Pleasure  Park  on  Elm 
Street.  Along  the  west  side  of  South  Street,  the  residential 
section  extended  about  two  miles  from  the  Park;  running  north 
and  south  from  West  Street,  side  streets  had  been  occupied  as 
far  west  as  Backman  Avenue.  Toward  the  northwest,  the  limits 
of  that  which  had  once  been  the  central  village  now  included 
the  eastern  portion  of  Lake  Avenue,  at  a  distance  from  the  Park 
of  more  than  a  mile.  On  the  north,  the  Russell  and  Pontoosue 
factory  villages  were  no  longer  isolated,  but  had  become  merged 
in  the  general  residential  district  spreading  in  that  direction, 
while  streets  had  been  opened  on  the  highland  immediately  east 
of  Pontoosue  Lake,  where  numerous  families  had  their  dwelling 
houses.  Five  hundred  streets  were  listed  by  name  in  the  Pitts- 
field  directory  of  1915. 

On  the  picturesque  site  of  the  villa  successively  occupied  by 
William  C.  Allen  and  Henry  C.  Valentine,  near  the  eastern  shore 


PITTSFIELD  IN  1915  369 

of  Onota  Lake,  the  most  impressive,  elaborately  adorned  and 
costly  residence  within  the  city  limits,  "Tor  Court",  was  erected 
by  Warren  M.  Salisbury  of  Chicago,  who  now  makes  it  his  sum- 
mer home,  having  greatly  beautified  the  broad  and  romantic 
estate.  Other  notably  fine  summer  residences  which  grace  the 
southern  neighborhood  of  the  lake  are  those  of  John  A.  Spoor, 
called  "Blythewood  Farm",  and  of  the  Misses  Bryce,  called 
"Fort  Hill"  and  built  on  the  eminence  on  which  Ashley's  block- 
house of  1757  stood  guard  over  the  western  valley  during  the 
French  and  Indian  war.  Bordered  on  the  southeast,  south,  and 
southwest  by  large  private  estates,  and  on  the  east  by  the  public 
land  of  Burbank  Park,  the  southern  part  of  Onota  Lake  and  its 
environment  are  preserved  in  their  rural  beauty. 

It  may  be  said,  indeed,  of  a  large  part  of  even  central  Pitts- 
field  that  it  has  been  enabled  to  escape  the  aspect  of  a  manu- 
facturing city  and  to  retain  some  of  the  genial,  homelike  look  of  a 
trim  and  prosperous  rural  town,  although  more  than  twenty -five 
distinct  lines  of  industry  are  carried  on  within  the  city  limits. 
No  shops  or  factories  are  in  operation,  for  example,  in  the  section 
bounded  on  the  west  by  North  Street  and  on  the  south  by  Tyler 
Street  and  Dalton  Road,  or  in  the  section  bounded  on  the  north 
by  East  and  Elm  Streets  and  on  the  west  by  South  Street,  The 
almost  complete  absence  of  street  fences,  the  breadth  of  lawn 
which  usually  separates  the  houses  from  the  sidewalks,  the  gen- 
eral simplicity  and  diversification  of  domestic  architecture,  and 
the  agreeable  width  of  the  highways,  combine  to  give  to  most  of 
the  new  residential  streets  the  attractive  appearance  of  refined 
and  healthful  comfort.  The  reader  will  take  care  to  understand 
that  this  characterization  is  not  intended  to  be  applied  to  every 
residential  district  of  the  city;  streets  exist  where  tenement 
houses  are  huddled  together  and  poorly  built.  But  the  fact  that 
the  growth  of  Pittsfield  in  all  directions  has  been  unimpeded  by 
any  natural  barrier  has  made  the  city,  although  a  manufacturing 
one,  a  place  where  the  conditions  of  living  are  wholesome  and 
cheerful  with  fresh  air  and  sunshine. 

Unlike  the  town  of  former  days,  the  Pittsfield  of  1915  boasted 
of  no  conspicuous  residence  within  a  short  radius  of  the  Park, 
ranking  relatively  with  the  homes  in  1876  of  Thomas  Allen,  Ed- 


370  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

ward  Learned,  and  Mrs.  William  Pollock.  The  men  of  affluence 
of  the  modern  city  built  residences  externally  less  pretentious, 
surrounded  by  less  ornamental  and  spacious  grounds.  At  the 
same  time  there  was  a  noticeable  and  perhaps  an  unusual  pro- 
portion of  homes  indicating  the  possession  of  both  comfortable 
means  and  good  taste.  The  visitor  to  Pittsfield  in  1915  would 
have  found,  for  example,  a  number  of  houses  of  this  description 
recently  erected  in  the  quadrilateral  bounded  by  Broad  Street, 
South  Street,  Crofut  Street,  and  Pomeroy  Avenue. 

If  he  had  chosen  to  glance  at  the  business  center  and  to  begin 
a  brief  tour  of  inspection  at  the  railroad  station  on  West  Street, 
he  would  have  found  two  dwelling  houses  surviving  on  West 
Street  between  the  station  and  the  Park,  these  houses  being  on 
the  south  side  of  the  thoroughfare.  Going  north  on  North 
Street  he  would  not  have  seen  a  dwelling  house  on  the  west  side 
until  he  reached  Bradford  Street,  nor  on  the  east  side,  except 
St.  Joseph's  parochial  residence  and  an  adjacent  dwelling,  until 
he  had  passed  the  Maplewood.  North  of  Bradford  Street,  on 
the  west  side,  were  several  business  blocks;  while  on  the  east 
side  substantial  buildings  for  commercial  purposes  had  been 
erected  on  the  south  corner  of  Maplewood  Avenue  and  on  both 
corners  of  Orchard  Street.  Trade  overflowed  from  North  Street 
into  several  of  the  side  streets  running  east  and  west  from  it; 
but  the  observations  of  our  visitor  of  1915  would  probably  have 
led  him  to  conclude  that  the  general  tendency  of  trade  in  the  city 
had  been  northward  rather  than  toward  the  east  or  west.  As 
for  the  modern  value  of  North  Street  real  estate,  a  parcel  on  the 
west  side,  at  the  south  corner  of  Burbank  Place  and  having  a 
frontage  of  seventy  feet  on  North  Street,  with  a  depth  of  two 
hundred,  was  sold  for  $148,500  in  1915. 

Our  first  chapter  offered  to  the  reader  a  list  of  the  principal 
mercantile  establishments  doing  business  in  1876.  Some  of  the 
present  business  firms  are  directly  descended  from  concerns  upon 
that  list,  and  therefore  have  been  operative  in  Pittsfield  for  at 
least  forty  years  without  interruption,  and  in  several  cases  for  a 
much  longer  period.  This  can  be  said  of  the  concerns  of  Gilbert 
West  and  Son  (groceries),  W.  G.  Backus'  Sons  (stoves  and  plumb- 
ing), the  W.  H.  Cooley  Company  (groceries),  the  Peirson  Hard- 


PITTSFIELD  IN  1915  371 

ware  Company,  John  H.  Enright  (boots  and  shoes),  Smith  and 
Dodge  (harness),  H.  S.  Taylor  and  Son  (men's  clothing),  Clarence 
H.  Waite  (drugs),  Thomas  Behan  (harness),  the  Casey  and  Bacon 
Company  (wholesale  groceries),  Prince  and  Walker  (carpets), 
O,  Root  and  Sons  (shoes),  England  Brothers  (department  store), 
Robbins,  Gamwell,  and  Company  (steam  fittings),  and  J.  R. 
Newman  and  Sons  (men's  clothing).  The  number  of  so-called 
"neighborhood"  stores,  or  establishments  managed  on  a  modest 
scale  and  in  localities  remote  from  the  business  center,  is  curiously 
large.  For  instance,  there  were  about  ninety  grocery  stores  in 
the  city  in  1915.  Many  of  them  were  conducted  in  small  dwell- 
ing houses  and  sold,  of  course,  merely  a  few  household  supplies  of 
minor  importance.  The  city  contained  twelve  stores  dealing  in 
dry  goods,  six  in  books  and  stationery,  thirteen  in  drugs,  twenty- 
four  in  boots  and  shoes,  sixteen  in  men's  clothing,  fourteen  in 
house-furnishing  supplies,  thirty-six  in  meat,  seventeen  in 
plumbing  and  heating  appliances,  fourteen  in  jewelry,  and  twenty 
in  automobile  supplies. 

The  buildings  on  North  Street  south  of  the  railroad  bridge 
contained  the  banking  rooms  and  offices  of  all  the  financial  in- 
stitutions. Therein  also,  and  in  the  blocks  on  Bank  Row,  were 
the  ofiices  of  the  practicing  lawyers,  of  whom  there  were  thirty- 
eight,  and  the  offices  of  most,  though  not  all,  of  the  men  and 
women  engaged  in  other  professions — for  example,  of  the  fifty- 
seven  physicians  and  surgeons. 

The  concentration  of  so  much  mercantile,  financial,  and  pro- 
fessional activity  in  North  Street  produced  there  a  somewhat 
troublous  condition  of  traffic,  especially  in  the  summer  months, 
when  tourists  by  motor  car  were  numerous;  and  the  regulation 
of  this  traffic  had  become  not  the  least  important  duty  of  the 
police  force.  Modern  Pittsfield  has  probably  more  reason  to  be 
grateful  for  the  spacious  width  of  its  main  thoroughfares  than  for 
any  other  single  physical  advantage.  Assuredly  the  visitor  to 
the  city  in  1915  would  have  been  impressed  by  the  well-ordered 
capacity  of  North  Street  for  business  or  pleasure,  and  at  night 
by  the  uniform  system  of  its  tastefully  mounted  and  brilliant  elec- 
tric street  lamps. 

North  Street  was  not  adorned  by  the  building  which  in  the 


372  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

opinion  of  not  a  few  is  the  most  artistically  designed  public  edi- 
fice in  the  city.  The  post  office,  facing  west  upon  the  junction  of 
Allen,  Dunham,  and  Fenn  Streets,  did  a  lively  business  in  1915, 
of  which  the  receipts  for  twelve  months  ending  on  June  fifteenth 
of  that  year  were  about  $130,000.  Thirty-five  years  before,  in 
1880,  the  annual  receipts  were  approximately  $10,000.  The 
postmaster  in  1915  was  John  G.  Orr.  From  1861  to  1881  the 
position  of  postmaster  was  filled  by  Henry  Chickering;  from  1881 
to  1883  by  William  F.  Osborne;  from  1883  to  1887  by  Thomas  H. 
Learned;  from  1887  to  1891,  and  from  1895  to  1898,  by  William 
J.  Coogan;  from  1891  to  1895,  and  from  1899  to  1916,  by  John 
G.  Orr.  Mr.  Orr  was  succeeded  in  the  latter  year  by  Edward  T. 
Scully. 

Returning  to  the  Park  by  way  of  Allen  Street,  the  visitor 
would  have  passed  the  closely  adjacent  central  fire  station,  the 
police  station,  and  the  city  hall,  the  latter  being  the  town  hall 
erected  in  1832  and  supplemented,  after  1895,  by  plain,  brick 
additions  on  the  north.  He  would  have  found  the  tracks,  wires, 
and  poles  of  a  trolley  street  railway  encircling  the  verdant  and 
elm-shaded  oval  of  the  Park,  but  here  again  he  could  not  have 
escaped  the  impression  of  spaciousness  and  of  the  pleasant  com- 
mingling of  the  aspect  of  a  modern  city  with  that  of  a  dignified 
country  town.  Toward  the  southwest  he  could  have  seen,  amid 
the  trees  near  the  north  corner  of  Church  and  South  Streets,  the 
square  mansion  built  by  Ashbel  Strong  in  1792,  and  now  the 
oldest  house  in  central  Pittsfield  unchanged  in  respect  of  site, 
and  least  changed  from  its  original  appearance;  while  toward 
the  north  he  could  have  seen  the  animated  and  modernly  equip- 
ped main  street  of  a  busy  manufacturing  city. 

The  oldest  house  now  standing  on  East  Street  is  the  St. 
Stephen's  rectory,  on  the  east  corner  of  Wendell  Avenue.  This 
was  built  during  the  Revolution  by  Colonel  James  Easton  on 
the  land  which  is  at  present  the  lawn  of  the  court  house.  The 
Plunkett  house,  still  standing  near  the  west  corner  of  Appleton 
Avenue  and  East  Street,  was  built  about  1798  by  Thomas  Gold. 
Having  become  the  summer  residence  of  Nathan  Appleton  of 
Boston,  it  was  the  house  described  by  Henry  W.  Longfellow, 
Mr.  Appleton's  son-in-law,  in  his  poem  of  "The  Old  Clock  on  the 


PITTSFIELD  IN  1915  373 

Stairs".  Since  the  writing  of  the  poem,  however,  the  appearance 
of  the  house  has  been  radically  altered,  and  the  ancient  timepiece 
has  been  removed  from  its  station  in  the  hall.  The  present  resi- 
dence of  George  C.  Harding,  on  the  east  corner  of  East  Street 
and  Bartlett  Avenue,  was  built  by  the  town  for  a  town  house  and 
academy  in  1793,  on  land  now  occupied  by  the  head  of  Allen 
Street  on  Park  Square,  whence  it  was  removed  in  1832. 

Of  the  twenty  religious  edifices  in  Pittsfield  the  oldest  in  re- 
spect of  unaltered  appearance,  within  and  without,  is  the  meeting 
house  of  the  Second  Congregational  Church,  on  First  Street. 
The  edifice  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  on  North  Street,  was 
erected  in  1849;  but  this  was  practically  rebuilt  in  1874.  A  gen- 
eral condition  of  amity  has  always  inspired  the  relations  between 
the  different  religious  sects  in  Pittsfield,  and  such  a  condition  is 
evident  today.  Not  only  have  sectarian  feuds  of  a  seriously 
disturbing  sort  been  almost  wholly  absent  from  the  community 
life,  but  there  have  been  many  instances  of  mutual  help  and  co- 
operation. Perhaps  Pittsfield  has  become  so  familiar  with  this 
condition  as  to  be  not  quite  appreciative  of  its  social  benefit. 
Eight  Protestant  forms  of  belief  are  represented  in  the  city  by 
fourteen  organized  parishes  and  societies.  Thirteen  Roman 
Catholic  clergymen,  distributed  among  seven  parishes,  adminis- 
ter to  the  religious  needs  of  about  one-half  of  the  city's  popula- 
tion, according  to  an  informal  estimate.  There  are  three  Jewish 
congregations. 

In  the  field  of  public  education,  the  authorities  of  1915  were 
not  troubled  as  their  predecessors  had  been  by  the  inadequate 
capacity  of  their  schoolhouses,  except  in  the  case  of  the  high 
school  building.  The  enrolment  of  the  high  school  was  1,155. 
A  class  of  148  was  graduated,  the  largest  in  the  history  of  the 
school  and  larger  than  the  aggregate  daily  attendance  of  only 
thirty  years  previous.  Of  this  number,  forty-two  entered  college 
in  September.  The  enrolment  at  all  the  public  schools  was 
6,758.  The  number  of  teachers  employed  was  244;  the  average 
cost  of  the  education  of  each  attending  pupil  was  $34.89,  and 
the  aggregate  valuation  of  the  school  buildings  was  about 
$1,100,000.  Pressure  upon  the  parochial  schools  of  St.  Joseph's 
was  relieved  during  the  year  by  the  remodeling  of  the  house 


374  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

numbered  22  on  Maplewood  Avenue  for  use  as  an  annex  to  the 
parochial  school  building  on  First  Street. 

The  pupils  of  the  public  schools  enjoy  the  use  of  the  Common 
on  First  Street  for  the  sports  of  baseball  and  football,  where 
football  contests  between  teams  representing  the  local  high  school 
and  similar  institutions  of  other  cities  interest  numerous  spec- 
tators. American  intercollegiate  football,  once  a  favorite  and 
strenuous  diversion  of  Pittsfield's  young  men,  is  not  now  played 
in  the  city  by  those  beyond  high  school  age.  Nor  is  professional 
baseball  now  played  there,  although  the  game  of  baseball  stands 
first  in  the  affections  of  a  great  majority  of  the  people.  Lawn 
tennis  and  golf  have  many  devotees,  while  the  most  popular  in- 
door athletic  sports  are  basketball  and  bowling;  and  the  various 
gymnastic  and  physical  culture  classes  of  the  large  young  people's 
associations  of  both  sexes  are  profitably  patronized.  The  tra- 
ditional Pittsfield  liking  for  lake  and  brook  fishing,  and  for  hunt- 
ing partridge  and  woodcock,  still  survives,  and  is  made  still 
possible  of  gratification  at  certain  seasons  by  the  enforcement  of 
protective  game  laws  during  most  of  the  year.  Motor  vehicles, 
procurable  at  a  comparatively  low  cost,  have  almost  wholly 
superseded  horses,  except  for  industrial  and  commercial  pur- 
poses; and  motoring,  no  longer  a  luxury  reserved  for  the  rich, 
is  a  pastime  enjoyed  by  many. 

Entertainment  by  means  of  moving  pictures  was  the  form  of 
theatrical  amusement  most  widely  enjoyed  in  the  Pittsfield  of 
1915,  when  it  was  provided  by  seven  establishments.  The 
Colonial  Theater,  however,  was  occupied  by  a  stock  company 
of  actors  in  the  summer,  and  occasionally  by  traveling  organiza- 
tions during  the  winter;  and  the  program  offered  at  the  Majestic 
and  the  Union  Square  was  diversified  by  that  variety  of  stage 
entertainment  which  had  become  known  in  the  United  States, 
by  an  odd  misnomer,  as  vaudeville.  The  number  of  public  balls 
was  singularly  large  and  between  Christmas  and  the  beginning 
of  Lent,  and  during  the  weeks  immediately  following  Easter,  the 
Armory  and  the  Masonic  Temple  were  the  scenes  of  many  of 
these  events,  attended  either  for  the  benefit  of  a  charity  or  of  an 
association.  Amateur  theatrical  productions,  except  on  a  pre- 
tentious scale  and  under  professional  direction,  seem  to  have 
passed  out  of  their  former  vogue. 


PITTSFIELD  IN  1915  375 

Among  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  there  existed  a  small 
leisurely,  if  not  a  leisure,  class,  which  is  not  so  evident  in  the 
city  of  today.  Social  life  is  affected  by  the  fact  that  the  influ- 
ential men  and  women  carry  their  fair  share  of  the  community's 
burdens.  The  avocations  of  business  and  professional  men  are 
apparently  often  chosen  with  a  view  toward  public  usefulness; 
women,  rich  and  poor  alike,  are  wont  to  devote  much  of  the  time 
and  energy  unconsumed  by  their  personal  affairs  to  philanthropic 
or  educational  activities.  The  people  of  the  city,  in  short,  have 
a  good  deal  to  do — more  to  do,  it  is  likely,  than  had  the  people 
of  the  town.  Thus  engaged,  the  people  in  general  are  charac- 
terized by  a  community  temper  that  is  evenly  balanced.  Con- 
siderable antagonisms  between  the  various  elements  of  popula- 
tion have  not  been  aroused.  The  local  relations  between  the 
employers  and  the  employed,  during  the  period  covered  by  this 
book,  have  not  been  disturbed.  The  stupendous  blow  of  the 
vast  European  war  of  1914  has  brought  about  no  serious  cleavage 
between  the  foreign-born  citizens  of  different  nationalities  in 
Pittsfield,  or  between  American-born  citizens  whose  sympathies 
are  oppositely  enlisted  by  the  warring  powers.  Howsoever 
agitated  temporarily,  both  civic  and  social  life  usually  regain 
their  equilibrium  with  a  pacific  promptness  which  was  not  charac- 
teristic of  the  somewhat  isolated  community  of  village  times. 

This  absence  of  such  prolonged  disturbances  in  Pittsfield  social 
life  as  vexed  the  secluded  rural  town  is  partly  due  also  to  the 
fact  that  the  modern  city  is  not  secluded  and  stands  in  closer 
touch  than  did  the  town  with  other  communities.  The  improved 
methods  of  communication,  the  influx  of  new  residents  from  many 
different  states  of  the  Union  and  from  many  different  countries 
of  the  world,  the  broadening  of  mental  outlook  by  better  news- 
papers, a  better  public  library  and  museum  of  art,  and  better 
schools  have  combined  to  break  down  the  physical  and  social 
isolation  of  the  town  among  the  hills.  A  century  ago  it  was  said 
of  the  towns  in  central  and  northern  Berkshire  that  they  belonged 
to  Massachusetts  only  by  virtue  of  a  surveyor's  boundary,  that 
the  political,  social,  and  even  religious  influences  from  the  other 
counties  of  the  Commonwealth  became  exhausted  by  an  attempt 
to  cross  the  barrier  of  the  Hoosac  range,  and  that  Pittsfield,  find- 


376  HISTORY  OF  PITTSFIELD 

ing  the  most  convenient  outlet  for  trade  and  travel  to  be  through 
the  Taconics  and  down  the  Hudson  River,  might  in  a  certain 
respect  be  considered  a  New  York,  rather  than  a  Massachusetts, 
town.  While  this  is,  of  course,  no  longer  true,  the  city  today, 
so  far  as  it  is  affected  at  all  by  any  great  metropolitan  center,  is 
subject  to  the  influence  and  attraction  of  New  York,  no  less  than 
to  those  of  Boston. 

Our  first  chapter  suggested  that  such  democratic  institutions 
as  the  town  meeting  and  the  volunteer  fire  department  tended 
to  eliminate  caste  distinctions  in  old-time  Pittsfield.  The  de- 
velopment of  such  distinctions  in  the  modern  city  is  opposed  by 
the  workings  of  the  cosmopolitan  spirit  which  the  present  chapter 
has  attempted  to  indicate.  It  was  the  pleasantry  of  Oliver  Wen- 
dell Holmes  which  described  the  sacrosanct  dominance  of  a 
"Brahman  class"  in  the  Boston  of  his  generation.  The  doctor's 
vivacious  fancy  would  probably  have  been  put  to  the  exercise 
of  less  ingenuity  in  discovering  the  ascendancy  of  any  class  of  that 
sort  in  the  village  than  in  the  city  of  Pittsfield.  The  conjecture 
may  at  least  be  hazarded  that  the  people,  in  matters  political, 
social,  and  intellectual,  are  led  not  so  often  now  as  once  they 
were  by  individual  men  and  women,  but  rather,  for  better  or 
worse,  by  ideas.  Although  the  form  of  city  government  adopted 
by  Pittsfield  has  not  constantly  enlisted  in  the  conduct  of  mu- 
nicipal affairs  the  interest  of  so  many  able  men  as  did  the  govern- 
mental systems  of  the  town  and  fire  district,  there  is  probably  a 
less  amount  now  than  formerly  of  the  personal  control  of  public 
proceedings  by  a  few  individuals. 

On  January  third,  1916,  the  city's  twenty-fifth  birthday  was 
observed  at  the  Colonial  Theater  by  some  additions  to  the  cere- 
monies of  the  inauguration  of  the  twenty-sixth  municipal  admin- 
istration. Addresses  were  made  by  Charles  E.  Hibbard,  the 
first  mayor,  and  Walter  F,  Hawkins,  the  first  city  solicitor.  The 
audience  was  large  and  attentive.  Many  of  the  older  people 
were  moved  to  recall  the  story  of  the  first  quarter-century  of  the 
city,  to  assure  themselves  that  the  story  was  not  discreditable, 
and  to  confront  without  misgivings  the  query  expressed  in  the 
noble  lines  of  the  poem  by  Morris  Schaff,  their  fellow  townsman. 


PITTSFIELD  IN  1915  377 

which  he  published  in  1890  and  called  "A  Word  to  Pittsfield, 

on  her  change  from  town  to  city  government". 

"Proud  town!     Aloft  in  splendor  thou  hast  borne 
Supreme  through  languid  peace  and  war's  red  flame 
The  refulgent  glory  of  a  spotless  name. 
That  radiant  gem  by  queenly  Rome  was  worn 
Till  civic  change;  and  then — Lo!  hear  her  mourn 
From    Cato's    grave! — its    light    was    quenched.     Hot 

shame 
Suffused  her  face.     Truth  fled.     Corruption  came, 
And  by  her  fangs  that  mighty  heart  was  torn. 
And  shall  her  fate  be  thine?     Thy  doom  to  see 
Thy  sons  grow  cheap?     Bold  courage  leave  their  eyes 
Spurned  by  the  laureled  hills  that  round  them  rise? 
Or  will  they  like  the  mountains  valiant  stand, 
Each  breast  a  soaring  peak  and  beacon  be, 
Whose  fires  shall  burn  with  breath  of  Glory  fanned?" 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Academy  of  Music,  24.  101,  104,  323 
Adam,  Robert  W.,  348 
Adams.  Dr.  J.  F.  A.,  219 
Agricultural  National  Bank.  260 
Agricultural  Society.  Berkshire,  13,  93 
Ahavez  Sholam,  Society  of,  173 
Allen,  Thomas,  185 

Residence  of,  6 
Allen,  John  F..  306 
American  Congress  of  Churches,  26 
American  House,  327 
Amusements 

In  1876,  12 

In  1915,  374 
Anniversary  Celebration,  The  150th, 

352 
Ansha  Amonim,  Society.  173 
Anti-tuberculosis  Association,  225 
Associated  Charities,  231 
Athenaeum  and  Museum,  175 
Atwater,  Charles.  267 
Axtell,   William  D.,  308 

Backus,  William  G.,  61 
Bailey,  Dr.  Charles,  333 
Balance  Rock  trust,  120 
Balloon  races,  100 
Banks,  259 

Bank  deposits,  growth  of,  1876- 
1916,  259 
Baptist  churches,  162 
Barker,  Charles  T.,  251 
Barker,  J.  and  Bros.  Mfg.  Co.,  251 
Barker,  James  M.,  340 

Speech  at  inauguration   of  first 
city  government,  75 
Barker,  John  V.,  251 
Barker,  Otis  R..  251 
Bartlett,  William  Francis,  46 
Bel  Air  Mfg.  Co.,  252 
Berkshire  Agricultural  Society,  13,  93 
Berkshire  Athenaeum,  175 

Loan  art  exhibition,  176 

Renewal   of   circulating   library, 
177 

Enlargement  of  building,  178 


Gift  of  museum  by  Zenas  Crane, 

181 
Reorganization    of    corporation, 

182 
List  of  officers,  1872-1916.  185 
Berkshire  Brewing  Association,  247 
Berkshire  County  Eagle,  307 
Berkshire    County    Home   for    Aged 

Women,  224 
Berkshire  County  Savings  Bank,  262 
Berkshire  Evening  Eagle,  309 
Berkshire  Hills.  The,  312,  314 
Berkshire  House,  328 
Berkshire  Life  Insurance  Company, 

264 
Berkshire  Loan  and  Trust  Co.,  261 
Berkshire  Manufacturing  Co.,  250^ 
Berkshire  Musical  Festival  Associa- 
tion, 102 
Berkshire  Mutual  Fire  Insurance  Co., 

263 
Berkshire  Post,  No.  197,  G.  A.  R.,  238 
Berkshire  Resort  Topics,  314 
Berkshire  Street  Railway  Co.,  81 
Berkshire  Sunday  Record,  313 
Berkshire  Woolen  Co..  252 
Bishop,  Henry  W.,  230 
Bishop  Memorial  Training  School  for 

Nurses,  211 
Blodgett,  Benjamin  C,  music  school, 

145 
Boards  of  Public  Works,  members  of, 

118 
Board  of  Trade,  367 
Boat  Club,  320 
Boltwood,  Edward,  264 
Bowerman,  Samuel  W.,  58 
Boylan,  Rev.  Charles  J.,  158 
Boyle,  Rev.  James,  157 
Boys'  Club  of  Pittsfield,  198 

Erection  by  Zenas  Crane  of  new 

building,  199 
Camp  Russell,  200 
Briggs,  George  P.,  55 
Briggs,  Henry  Shaw,  278 
Brown,  Nathan  Gallup,  57 


382 


INDEX 


Burbank,  Abraham,  59 

Last  will  of,  39 
Burbank  Hotel,  328 
Burke,  Charles  Eugene,  281 
Burke,  Rev.  R.  S.  J.,  156 
Business  Men's  Association,  318 
Business  Women's  Club,  202 

Campbell,  George  W.,  50 

Casey,  Michael,  240 

Casino,  325 

Catholic  churches,  154 

Celebrations: 

Of  the  Fourth  of  July  in  1881,  17 

Labor  Day  in  1887,  18 

Regimental  reunions  in  1887,  18 

Of  the  Fourth  of  July  in  1898,  97 

Regimental  reunions  in  1912,  98 

The   150th  anniversary  celebra- 
tion in  1911,  351 

25th  anniversary  of  the  inaugu- 
ration of  first  city  government, 
376 
Cemeteries,  174 
Chamberlin,  William  H.,  237 
Charities,  221 

Charity  balls,  102 
Chickering,  Henry,  307 
Chief   engineers   of   fire   department, 

292,  300 
Churches,  148 

In  1915,  373 
City  charter,  64 

Of  1875,  64 

Of  1886,  66 

Proposed  charter  of  1888,  68 

Passed  by  legislature  in  1889,  69 

Discussion  of,  in  1890,  70 

Approved  by  town,  71 

Changes  in  1895,  125 

Proposed   new   charter  in   1904, 
126 

Agitation   for   revision   in   1910, 
127 

Vote  on  change  of  form  in  1911, 
128 
City  clerks,  list  of,  120 
City  government,  108 

Inauguration  of  first  city  govern- 
ment, 74 
City  hall.  118 
City  Savings  Bank,  262 
City  solicitors,  list  of,  120 
Clapp,  Edwin,  56 
Clapp,  Thaddeus,  253 
Clary,  David  A.,  332 


Clubs,  318 

Clymer,  Rev.  John  F.,  170 

Collins,  Dwight  M.,  257 

Collins,  D.  M.  and  Co.,  256 

Colonial  Theater,  101,  325 

Company   E,   Second   Battalion,   6th 

Brigade,  M.  V.  M.,  234 
Company  F,  Second  Infantry,  M.V. 
M.,  98 

Mustered  in,  244 

List  of  ofiicers,  244 

Duty  on  Mexican  border,  244 
Colby,  John  L.,  234 
Colt,  James  D.,  50 
Colt,  Henry,  60 
Colt,  Thomas,  49 
Colt,  Thomas  G.,  235 
Coliseum,  18 

Congregational  churches,  168 
Coogan,  Owen,  58 
Coogan,  Owen  and  Sons,  250 
Coogan,  William  J.,  334 
Coolidge,  Dr.  Frederic  S.,  226 
Country  Club,  99,  319 
Courts,  police  and  district,  277 
Crane,  Zenas, 

Gift  of  Museum  of  Natural  His- 
tory and  Art,  181 

Gift  of  building  for  Boys'  Club, 
199 
Crane,  Zenas  Marshall,  224 
Crosby,  John,  288 
Cutting,  Walter,  240 

Daily  News,  312 

Daughters  of  American  Revolution, 
Peace  Party  Chapter,  242 

Davis,  Dr.  Wm.  V.  W.,  150 

Dawes,  Henry  L.,  336 

Public  reception  of,  in  1893,  95 

Day  Nursery  Association,  226 

District  Court  of  Central  Berkshire, 
277 

Dope  Club,  315 

Dowling  Camp,  Spanish  War  Veter- 
ans, 244 

Dunham,  Jarvis  N.,  332 

Dutton,  George  N.,  331 

Eagle,  Berkshire  County,  307 
Eagle,  Berkshire  Evening,  309 
Easton  tavern  marker,  dedication  of, 

358 
Eaton,  Crane  and  Pike  Co.,  84,  245 
Electric  lighting,  introduction  of,  23 
Electrical  manufacturing,  255 


INDEX 


383 


Elm  Street  Baptist  Chapel,  164 
Empire  Theater,  325 
England,  Moses,  334 
Evening  Journal,  310 
Evening  Times,  313 
Executions  by  hanging.  289 
Explosion  of  boiler  at  Morewood  Lake 
102 


Farnham  dam  and  reservoir,  114 

Father    Mathew    Total    Abstinence 
Society,  195 
List  of  presidents,  195 
Erection  of  new  building,  197 
Ladies'  Aid  Society,  197 

Feeley,  John,  350 

Financial  institutions,  259 

Fire  department,  290 

Fire  district,  41 

Last  fire  district  officers,  73 

Fires : 

Weller  block  in  1881,  20 
Academy  of  Music  in  1912,  103, 

301 
Between  1876-1891,  299 
Between  1891-1916,  301 

First  Baptist  Church,  162 

First  Church  of  Christ,  Congrega- 
tional, 148 

First  Church  of  Christ.  Scientist,  172 

Flynn,  Daniel  P.,  287 

Fosburg,  Robert  L.  Jr.,  trial  of,  103 

Francis,  Almiron  D.,  334 

Francis,  J.  Dwight,  253 

Fraternal  orders,  318 

Frothingham,  Louis  A.,  remarks  at 
laying  of  corner  stone  of 
Morningside  Baptist  Church, 
354 

Fuller.  Charles  W..  289 

Gamwell,  Lorenzo  H.,  333 

Gamwell,  William  W.,  273 

GarBeld,  Harry  A.,  extracts  from  ad- 
dress at  150th  anniversary 
celebration,  355 

General  Electric  Co. 
Pitts6eld  works,  82 
Purchases  Stanley  Electric  Man- 
ufacturing Co.,  272 
Expansion  of  Morningside  plant, 
274 

Gimlich,  Jacob,  350 

Girls'  League,  203 

Goodrich,  Alonzo  E.,  53 

Goodrich,  Chauncey,  59 


"Government  mill",  28 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  in  Pitts- 
field,  234 
Institution  of  W.   W.   Rockwell 

Post,  No.  125,  235 
List  of  commanders  of  Rockwell 

Post,  235 
Women's  Relief  Corps  auxiliary 

to  Rockwell  Post,  235 
Institution  of  Berkshire  Post  No. 

197,  238 
Commanders  of  Berkshire  Post, 

238 
Organization   of   Berkshire   Wo- 
men's  Relief   Corps  No.   129, 
238 
Grand  Theater,  325 
Greylock  Hook  and  Ladder  Co.,  298 
"Greytower",  6 
Gunn,  Samuel  M.,  284 


Haeger,  Rev.  John  D.,  168 

Hall,  Miss  Mira  H.,   school  for  girls, 

146 
Hall,  Timothy,  284 
Harding,  James,  305 
Harrison,  Rev.  Samuel,  153 
Hawkins,    Walter   F.,   extracts  from 
address  at  dedication  of  Eas- 
ton  tavern  tablet,  359 
Hibbard,   Charles  E.,   extracts  from 
address  at   150th  anniversary 
celebration,  355 
High  school,  140 

Principals,  1876-1916,  142 
Hillcrest  Hospital,  228 
Hinsdale,  Frank  W.,  344 
Historical  pageant  of  1911,  360 
Historical  sites  marked  in  1911,  353 
Hotels: 

1876-1891,  24,  327 
1891-1916,  82,  327 
Housatonic  Engine  Company,  296 
Houses: 

Conspicuous  houses  in  1876,  6 
Old  houses  in  1915,  372 
House  of  Mercy,  205 
Bazar  of  1874,  207 
Incorporation,  207 
Opening  of  new  building  in  1878, 

210 
First  training  school  for  nurses, 

210 
Henry  W.  Bishop  third  Memorial 
Training    School    for    Nurses, 
211 


384 


INDEX 


Erection  of  new  building  in  1902, 

212 
List  of  medical  directors,  213 
Growth  in  1915,  215 
List  of  officers,  215 
Hull,  James  W..  349 

Industries,  245 
Insurance  companies,  263 

Jacobson  and  Brandow  Co.,  250 
Jenkins,  Rev.  Jonathan  L.,  148 
Jewish  religious  societies,  173 
Jones,  Edward  D.,  340 
Jones,  E.  D.  and  Sons  Co.,  247 
Journal,  Evening,  310 

Kellogg,  Charles  W.,  345 

Kellogg,  Ensign  H.,  54 

Keneseth  Isreal,  Congregation  of,  173 

Kernochan,  Francis  E.,  56 

Kindergarten  Association,  225 

Kindergartens,  143 

Kittle,  James,  239 

Labor  unions,  367 

Laflin,  George  H.,  339 

Learned,  Edward,  57 

Learned,  George  Y.,  334 

Learned,  George  Y.,  Engine  Com- 
pany, 296 

Lenox  Life,  314 

Leonard,  Michael,  288 

Library,  public,  175 

Long,  John  D.,  extracts  from  anni- 
versary address,  1911,  361 

Lutheran  Church,  168 

Manning,  John  H.,  346 
Majestic  Theater,  327 
Manufacturing,  27,  245 
Manufacturing,  electrical,  265 
Maplewood  Hotel,  329 
Maplewood  Institute,  144 
Mayors,  list  of,  121 
Memorial   Day,   first   observance   of, 

234 
Mercer,  Dr.  William  M.,  345 
Merrill,  John  E.,  333 
Merrill,  Justus,  49 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  169 

Epworth  Mission,  171 
Military   organizations,   233 
Miller,  Kelton  B.,  gift  of  Abbot  Park, 

119 


Minahan,  Luke  J.,  330 

Mink,  William,  306 

Monday  Evening  Club,  321 

Morning  Call,  313 

Morning  Press,  313 

Morningside  Baptist  Church,  163 

Laying  of  corner  stone,  354 
Morrissey,  Rev.  P.  W.,  extracts  from 
anniversary  address,  1911,  356 
Morton,  S.  W.,  Engine  Company,  298 
Munyan,  Dewitt  C,  62 
Museum  of  Natural  Historv  and  Art, 
181 

Opening  of  building,   182 

Enlargements  of,  183 

Resolution   of   thanks   to   Zenas 
Crane,  183 

Contents  of  Museum  in  1915,  184 
Musgrove  Knitting  Co.,  258 
Musical  events,  25,  102 

News,  Daily,  312 

Newspapers,  303 

Newton,   Rev.   William   Wilberforce, 
165 

North  Street: 
In  1876,  4 

Building  on,  1876-1890,  19 
Building  on,  1891-1916,  85 
Description  of,  in  1915,  370 

Notre  Dame  Church,  160 

Oatman,  Hiram  T.,  312 
Oman,  Thomas  A.,  347 
Orchard  Street  school  house,  136 
Osceola  mill,  256 
Outdoor  sports,  99,  374 

Paddock.  Dr.  Franklin  K.,  217 

Park  and  Plavgroimd  Association  227 

Park  Club,  319 

Parks,  118 

Parker,  John  C,  53 

Peck,  Jabez  L.,  122 

Peck,  J.  L.  and  T.  D.  Manufacturing 

Co.,  252 
Peirson,  Henry  M.,  332 
Pilgrim  Memorial  Church,  154 
Pingree,  Thomas  P.,  333 
Pittsfield    Anti-tuberculosis    Associa- 
tion, 225 

Erection   of   Coolidge   Memorial 
house,  226 
Pittsfield: 

In  1872,  2 

Residences  in  1876,  5 


INDEX 


385 


Social  life  in  1876,  10 

Town  government,  32 

Growth  1890-1916,  79 

Strain  of  expansion  of,  84 

Census  of  1910,  90 

In  the  Spanish  War,  97 

City  government,  108 

Description  of,  in  1915,  365 

Social  life  in  1915,  375 
Pittsfield  Bicycle  Club,  321 
Pittsfield  Boat  Club,  320 
Pittsfield  Coal  Gas  Co.,  258 
Pittsfield  Co-Operative  Bank.  263 
Pittsfield  Day  Nursery  Association,  226 
Pittsfield  Electric  Co.,  29,  259 
Pittsfield  Electric  Light  Co.,  258 
Pittsfield  Electric  Street  Railway  Co., 

80 
Pittsfield  Illuminating  Co.,  259 
Pittsfield  Journal  Co.,  311 
Pittsfield    Kindergarten    Association, 

225 
Pittsfield  Manufacturing  Co.,  252 
Pittsfield  National  Bank,  261 
Pittsfield  Publishing  Co.,  312 
Pittsfield  Shakers,  94 
Pittsfield  Sun,  303 
Pittsfield  Symphony  Society,  102 
Pittsfield  Theater  Co.,  326 
Pittsfield  Veteran  Firemen's  Associa- 
tion, 300 
Pittsfield  Visiting  Nurse  Association, 

230 
Playgrounds,  119 
Pleasure  Park,  98 
Plunkett.  Charles  T.,  345 
Plunkett,  Mrs.  Thos.  P.,  216 
Plunkett,  William  R.,  186 
Police  force,  38,  284 
Police  stations,  283,  287 
Pomeroy,  Edward,  62 
Pomeroy,  Theodore,  52 
Pomeroy,  Robert,  61 

"The  Homestead",  6 
Pomeroy  Woolen  Co.,  251 
Pontoosuc     Woolen     Manufacturing 

Co.,  253 
Poor  relief,  38 
Postmasters,  372 
Post  office,  372 

Discussion  of  site  for  new  post 
office,  105 
Power,  John  T.,  62 
Presidential  elections  in  Pittsfield,  23, 

129 
Protectives  Company,  295,  298 
Purcell,  Rev.  Edward  H.,  154 


Quackenbush,  Cebra,  328 
Quevillon,  Rev.  Joseph,  160 

Railroad  station,  building  of  new,  106 

Railways,  street,  22,  81 

Read,  Franklin  F.,  343 

Record,  Berkshire  Sunday,  313 

Redfield,  Charles  B.,  49 

Renne,  William,  336 

Rice,  A.  H.  Co.,  249 

Rice,  William  B.,  services  on  school 
committee,  134 

Richardson,  Henry  H.,  236 

Robbins,  Oliver  W.,  335 

Roberts,  Dr.  Oscar  S.,  347 

Rockwell,  Julius,  261 

Rockwell  Post,  No.  125,  235 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  injury  to,  95 

Root,  Graham  A.,  288 

Root,  John  Allen,  336 

Russell,  Franklin  W.,  346 

Russell,  Hezekiah  S.,  124 

Russell,  Solomon  Lincoln,  54 

Russell,  Solomon  Nash,  254 

Russell,  Zeno,  53 

Russell,  The  S.  N.  and  C.  Manufac- 
turing Co.,  254 

Salisbury,  Miss  Mai^y  E.,   school  for 

girls,  146 
Saturday  Blade,  314 
Schaff,  Morris,  poem  on  change  from 
town  to  city  government,  377 
Schools,  39,  130 

Building    of    new    schoolhouses, 

1883-1891,  137 
St.  Joseph's  parochial  school,  143 
Building    of    new    schoolhouses, 

1895-1915,  139 
Private  schools  for  boys,  146 
In  1915,  373 
School  committees,  chairmen  of,  138 
School  districts,  abolition  of,  131 
School  superintendents,   132,   138 
Second  Adventist  Christian  Church, 

172 
Second  Congregational  Church,  153 
Selectmen,  list  of.  1876-1891,  36 
Sewers: 

1876-1891,  43 

Building  of  new  svstem  of  sewers, 
109 
Sheriffs  of  Berkshire  County,  288 
Shire  City  Club,  321 
Shoe  manufacturing,  248 
Silk  manufacturing,  249 


386 


INDEX 


Sisters  of  St.  Joseph,  building  of  con- 
vent and  academy,  156 

Smart,    Rev.    I.    Chipman,    extracts 
from   anniversary    address, 
1911.  356 

Smith,  Dr.  Abner,  M.,  62 

Smith,  John  S.,  239 

Smith,  Joseph  E.  A.,  315 

Smith,  Rev.  Terence  N.,  156 

Smith,  Walter  B.,  282 

Sons    of    the    Revolution,    Berkshire 
Chapter,  243 

Sons  of  Veterans,  Gen.  W.  F.  Bart- 
lett  Camp,  241 

South  Congregational  Church,  152 

Spanish  War  Veterans,  244 

Spear,  Rev.  Charles  V.,  145 

Springside  Park,  119 

Stanley  Electric  Manufacturing  Co., 
30 
Growth,  83 

Early  officers  of,  267,  270 
Sale  of,  to  F.  W.  Roebling,  271 
Sale  of,  to  General  Electric  Com- 
pany, 272 

Stanley  Laboratory  Co.,  268 

Stanley,  William,  275 

Stearns,  D.  &  H.  Co.,  250 

Stevenson,  John  M.,  263 

Stores: 

In  1876,  4 
In  1915,  370 

St.  Charles'  Church,  158 

St.  Joseph's  Church,  154 
Parochial  school,  143 

St.  Mark's  Church,  159 

St.  Martin's  Episcopal  Church,  168 

St.  Mary  of  the  Morning  Star  Church, 
159 

St.  Stephen's  Episcopal  Church,  165 

Stock  farms,  94 

Streets,  37 

Paving  of,  110 

Street  lighting: 
1876-1891,  44 
1891-1916,  117 

Street  railways,  22,  81 

Sunday  Morning  Call,  312,  314 

Sun-dial  in  Park,  presentation  of  by 
Peace  Party  Chapter,  243 

Sun,  Pitisfield,  303 

Sun  Printing  Co.,  305 


Tack  manufacturing,  248 

Taconic  mill,  255 

Taft,  Henry  Walbridge,  339 


Teeling,  William  H.,  292 
Telephone,  introduction  of,  22 
Tel-electric  Piano  Player  Co.,  250 
Terry  Clock  Company,  28 
Textile  manufacturing,  250 
Theaters,  322 
Third  National  Bank,  261 
Thompson,  Rev.  John  W.,  171 
Tillotson,  William  E.,  257 
Tillotsbn,  W.  E.  Manufacturing  Co., 

84.  256 
Tornado  of  1879,  19 
Town  clerks,  list  of,  1876-1891,  36 
Town  government.  32 

Last  town  officers,  72 
Town  meetings,  21 
Character  of,  34 
Last  town  meeting,  72 
Town  treasurers,   list  of,   1876-1891, 

36 
Training  school  for  teachers,  143 
Trinity  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 

171 
Triumph  Voting  Machine  Co.,  250 
Tucker,  Joseph,  280 

Union  Co-Operative  Bank,  263 

Union  for  Home  Work,  25,  221 
Presidents,  223 

Union  Square  Theater,  327 

Unity  Church,  164 

United  Spanish  War  Veterans,  or- 
ganization of  Richard  Dowling 
Camp,  244 

Van  Sickler,  Martin,  252 
Vermilye,  Dr.  W.  E.,  220 
Visiting  Nurse  Association,  230 
Volunteer  fire  companies,  290,  296 

Warriner,  John  R.,  260 

Waterman,  Andrew  J.,  335 

Water  supply: 

1876-1891,  42 

Additions  to  waterworks.  111 
Building  of  Farnham   reservoir, 
114 

Wednesday  Morning  Club,  321 

Weller,  Israel  C,  237 

Wendell  Hotel,  329 

Wentworth,  Dr.  Walter  H..  347 

West's  block,  3 

West,  John  C.  331 

Whelden,  Charles  M.,  237 

Whiting,  William  W.,  124 

Whittlesey,  William  A.,  342 


INDEX 


387 


Wilcox,  Marshall,  344 
Willis,  George  S.  Jr.,  292 
Wilson,  James  &  E.  H.,  255 
Wood,  Edgar  M.,  343 
Wood,  Oliver  L.,  239 
Working  Girls'  Club,  201 


Young   Men's   Association   of    1865, 

191 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association: 
Formation  of  Pittsfield  branch, 

191 


Camp  Merrill,  193 

Erection  of  new  building,  194 

Women's  Auxiliary,  192 
Young  Men's  Society  of  1831,  190 
Young  Women's  Home  Association, 
202 

Announcement  of  new  building 
for  Working  Girls'  and  Busi- 
ness Women's  Clubs  and  Girls' 
League,  203 

Zion's  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church, 


906      23 


